PURPOSE: To evaluate functional outcomes and satisfaction in patients who underwent telerehabilitation (telerehab) compared with in-person rehabilitation after arthroscopic meniscectomy. METHODS: A randomized-controlled trial was conducted including patients scheduled to undergo arthroscopic meniscectomy for meniscal injury by 1 of 5 fellowship-trained sports medicine surgeons between September 2020 and October 2021. Patients were randomized to receive telerehab, defined as exercises and stretches provided by trained physical therapists over a synchronous face-to-face video visit or in-person rehabilitation for their postoperative course. International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Form (IKDC) score and satisfaction metrics were collected at baseline and 3 months postoperatively. RESULTS: Analysis was conducted on 60 patients with 3 month follow-up outcomes. There were no significant differences in IKDC scores between groups at baseline (p = 0.211) and 3 months' postoperatively (p = 0.065). Patients were more likely to report being satisfied with their rehabilitation group 73% versus 100% (p = 0.044) if there were in the in-person group. Satisfaction differed significantly between the 2 groups at the end of their rehabilitation course, and only 64% of those in the telerehab group would elect to undergo telerehab again for future indications. Furthermore, they believed that future rehabilitation would benefit from a hybrid model. CONCLUSIONS: Telerehab showed no difference versus traditional in-person rehabilitation in terms of functional outcomes up to 3 months after arthroscopic meniscectomy. However, patients were less satisfied with telerehab. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: I, randomized controlled trial.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PubMed Central
• DOI
• PubMed
• PDF locator
• publisher