The current standard recovery protocol after a knee replacement procedure can be categorized as aggressive. And while we wouldn’t say that the best motto to describe it is “No pain, no gain,” there is some truth to the motto “you get out what you put in.” We ask a lot of our patients during the early stages of their recovery program because we know how effective it can be when done right under the guidance of a medical professional.
But as always, medical experts are always looking to improve surgery and recovery techniques, and the Hospital for Specialty Surgery recently conducted a study to see if a more relaxed approach to recovery after knee surgery could still prove beneficial. We take a closer look at the “Quiet Knee” protocol after knee replacement surgery in today’s blog.
Could The “Quiet Knee” Protocol Become The New Standard?
The Quiet Knee protocol, which some HSS surgeons began implementing several years ago, takes a more conservative approach to knee replacement recovery than the standard protocol. The technique focuses on controlling inflammation and swelling through restricted mobility, passive range of motion and aggressive cryotherapy for the first 10 days after surgery.
For the study, researchers tracked three separate groups that underwent knee replacement surgery between 2020 and 2024. Those three groups were:
- Patients who followed a structured postoperative care plan utilizing the Quiet Knee protocol and monitored telerehabilitation.
- Patients who were verbally given a care plan utilizing the Quiet Knee protocol.
- Patients who followed the traditional early motion protocol.
Despite the two subsets of Quiet Knee protocol groups, researchers were mainly interested in how these patients compared to the standard recovery protocol group. While a lot of information about the findings are not yet public, when presenting at the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) annual meeting, researchers noted that early results set the stage for a smoother long-term recovery compared to the standard approach. Perhaps more interestingly, the protocol reduced 90-day opioid exposure by more than 25%.
The findings are certainly interesting, but it seems likely that if the functional recovery rates were better or even the same as standard protocol than they’d be shouting these findings from the rooftops. The language “set the stage for a smoother long-term recovery” is a bit ambiguous, and while the part about decreased long-term opioid rates is certainly encouraging, if patients are worse off physically and functionally by delaying movement and physical therapy, then the Quiet Knee protocol likely isn’t the optimal result. Perhaps more information or future studies will change our opinion, but for now we’ll stick with the tried and true method of early physical therapy.
For more information about knee replacement surgery or the standard recovery protocol, reach out to Dr. Botero and his team today at (865) 558-4444.
