The patient/caregiver was educated on precautions to be observed during immediate phase of post knee replacement surgery as follows:
Compliance with weight bearing limitations:
- Usually, full weight bearing could be allowed after the surgery on compliance with use of the recommended assistive devices.
- Check with your surgeon for any limitations placed on weight bearing in your case.
Compliance with SCDs:
- As the mobility and range of motion in the joint is limited during immediate post-surgical phase, blood tends to pool in the deep veins of the limb and increase risk for clot formation.
- You could be recommended use of sequential compression devices (SCDs) for 8 hours a day during immediate post-surgical phase.
- These devices have sleeves that are wrapped around your legs. Upon activation of the device, the sleeves cause sequential compression of the legs.
- This compression promotes movement of blood up along the veins, prevents pooling of blood in lower legs, and thus reduce risk for clot formation.
Compliance with use of cold and hot compresses:
- Observe compliance with use of cold and hot compresses, as needed.
- Cold compress reduces the blood supply to the joint, which helps with reducing the warmth and swelling in an acutely inflamed surgical joint. Observe compliance with use of cold compress during immediate post-surgical phase.
- Hot compress increases the blood supply to the joint, which results in warmth and can contribute to increased swelling in the painful joint. So, do not apply hot compress when the joint is red and acutely inflamed during immediate post-surgical phase.
- Once the swelling and warmth in the joint are controlled with cold compress, hot compress could be used later to relieve spasm in the muscles around the joint and promote relaxation in the surgical joint.
