Motor imagery enhances early rehabilitation in patients with high kinesiophobia after total knee arthroplasty: a randomized controlled trial.
Jejeong Lee, Minjeong Kim, Yongwoo Lee
PMID 41327758WHAT IT FOUND
Adding motor imagery to a standard acute-phase knee replacement programme gave a larger drop in fear of movement than the same programme alone.
It also gave larger reductions in pain and larger gains in confidence, adherence, knee bending and quadriceps strength.
Key findings
01The group that added motor imagery had a greater reduction in fear of movement than the group that did not.
02Adding motor imagery to the standard programme gave greater increases in self-efficacy and exercise adherence.
03Adding motor imagery gave greater reductions in pain and greater improvements in knee flexion range and quadriceps strength.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was single centre and only 40 patients were enrolled. Patients had to have high kinesiophobia and recent total knee arthroplasty, so results may not apply to all patients after knee replacement. Therapists knew group allocation, so differences in how sessions were delivered cannot be ruled out. There was no follow-up beyond the 2-week intervention, so long-term effects are unknown. The average age was under 70, so older patients may respond differently. Daily activities during hospitalization were not fully controlled, so outside factors may have influenced results. The study was registered retrospectively after enrolment began.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that motor imagery alone improves recovery after knee replacement. Both groups received the same standard acute-phase rehabilitation programme, including cryotherapy, CPM, ankle pumping, active-assisted knee flexion, quadriceps setting, straight leg raises and knee extension exercises, and the trial tested adding motor imagery to that programme.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →