Rapid Rehab means that you will be given medications during surgery that allow you to get out of bed (four to six hours) after surgery and start moving around with minimal pain.
Rapid Rehab medications are very good at reducing your pain after surgery which means you can tolerate walking and doing your exercises sooner after surgery.
Rapid Rehab patients will often begin working with a physical therapist the day of surgery or first thing in the morning the day after surgery.
Rapid Rehab patients often feel ready to go home earlier. The decision of when to discharge you from the hospital is based on your ability to safely get around, your overall state of health after the surgery and your surgeon’s evaluation of your readiness to go home and safely recover.
Pain Management and Rapid Rehabilitation
Total hip and knee replacement are truly miracles of modern medicine. The pain relief and improvement in function are amazing. However, the surgery can be a painful and unpleasant procedure for patients to undergo. Much work has been done since 2001 to improve the patient experience by reducing the pain they experience and speeding up their recovery process. This has led to new anaesthesia and pain management protocols that significantly reduce the pain experience for the patient. Patients start their rehabilitation within hours of their surgery and are allowed to walk, sit in a chair and do their exercises immediately. With these improvements,patients regain independence more rapidly and can be released home much earlier than before.
Pain medication is needed after these procedures and it is important to determine which medication works best for each patient.
While these efforts will lead to a quicker return of function, the healing after joint replacement goes on for several months and patients may expect to see gradual improvement for up to six months or more as the soft tissues in the body continue to heal.
