This article examines the process of undertaking a mini-review into an area of orthopaedic practice of relevance to the author's clinical work. The concept of a mini-review is explored and it's place within evidence based health care (EBHC) is established. The mini-review undertaken examines the effectiveness of pre-operative exercise in improving the mobility and function of adult patients following total knee replacement (TKR). Searches on Medline, Embase, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library and PEDro identified two randomised controlled trials for review. Both studies compared a physiotherapy led programme of exercises (15 to 18 sessions) before surgery with 'normal' pre-operative preparation. The outcomes considered were function and mobility. The studies used different outcome measures -- self-report questionnaires and physical measurement of mobility. The combined number of participants was 60 patients. Both studies found that there was no significant impact on function or mobility. However, both had a number of methodological weaknesses which meant that the findings must be viewed with extreme caution. It was concluded that it was not possible to answer the question posed based on this review. Implications of this for practice are considered.

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A brief summary and a critical assessment of this review may be available at DARE