| Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) surgery is used to reduce pain and increase functional mobility of persons with knee osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. Despite success of the procedure, functional deficits persist up to one year after surgery. There is a need for a battery of clinically useful performance measures to evaluate functional ability after TKA.; Ten subjects with TKA (Mean age: 69.3 ± 7.2 years) and eleven subjects without TKA (Mean age: 72.1 ± 7.9 years) were asked to perform 17 tasks to determine the ability of the tasks to discriminate between these groups. Data were collected and analyzed using t tests and ROC curves to compare performances of both groups.; The seven measures that showed significant group differences were: 8-foot walk (p = .013), 12&inches; step-up-and-over (p = .006), time-to-kneel (p = .026), rise from floor (p = .011), squat test (p = .012), standing on foam, eyes open (p = .027), and sit-to-stand from a low height for velocity (p = .006) and percent of body sway (p = .003). These tests can be used in further studies to assess functional ability after TKA. |
