BACKGROUND: Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is widely applied in clinic, and postoperative rehabilitation become a focus. Flexion range of artificial knee joint is an important factor to guarantee the treatment outcome. OBJECTIVE: To observe the influence of continuous passive activities following TKA on range of motion. DESIGN, TIME AND SETTING: Randomized, grouping, and comparative observation. The cases were selected from Department of Orthopedics, Second Hospital of Chinese PLA General Hospital from March to September 2007. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 20 patients with severe knee osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, 9 males and 11 females, aged 57 to 80 years, were selected. All patients underwent TKA. METHODS: The patients were randomly divided into control and experimental groups with 10 cases in each group. Patients in the experimental group were subjected to continuous passive activities immediately following TKA, while the control group did the activities 3 days after drainage tube extraction. HSS scoring was used to evaluate the knee function. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Changes in range of motion of knee joint were observed before and 3, 14 days after TKA. RESULTS: All 20 patients were included in the final analysis. The flexion and extension of experimental group was significantly improved than control group 3 days after surgery (p < 0.01). However, no significant difference was found at 14 days between two groups (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Early continuous passive activities are better for improvement of range of motion following TKA.

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