Rehabilitation Around Total Knee Arthroplasty: Active Exercise After Surgery, Prehabilitation Before It

Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants who see patients before or after total knee arthroplasty in inpatient rehabilitation, home health, or outpatient settings, and who want a plain-language account of what the current evidence on before-surgery and after-surgery rehabilitation actually shows.

Physical therapists and physical therapist assistants; also useful for occupational therapists, athletic trainers, and rehabilitation managers involved in joint replacement pathways.

Intended audience

Physical Therapy

Level

Intermediate

Delivery format

Online, asynchronous, self-paced course: interactive reading with audio or video, and a scored post-test.

Based on

This course is built entirely on two peer-reviewed papers:

• Mogensen L, Rasmussen T, Rasmussen J, Molsted S. Efficacy of Active Exercises to Improve Range of Motion in Knee Joint After Total Knee Arthroplasty. A Randomized Controlled Trial. Physiother Res Int. 2026;31(3):e70228. doi:10.1002/pri.70228
• Zhao Y, Tian C, Tian S, Han W, Shi H, Cao M, Liu J. An umbrella review for preoperative rehabilitation in primary total knee arthroplasty: quality assessment and summary of evidence. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2025;26(1):630. doi:10.1186/s12891-025-08541-y

After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Describe what the randomized controlled trial reported in Physiotherapy Research International found about self-managed active flexion exercise and knee range of motion in adults whose flexion had stalled after total knee arthroplasty.
2. State what the umbrella review published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders concluded about preoperative rehabilitation before primary total knee arthroplasty, including the quality it assigned to the reviews it gathered.
3. Distinguish the questions answered by the before-surgery and after-surgery evidence in these two papers, and explain where their findings agree and where they diverge.

1. Start Here: How This Course Works
2. Part One: Active Flexion Exercise After Total Knee Arthroplasty
3. Who Took Part: Stalled Knee Flexion After Knee Replacement
4. How the Trial Was Run: Eight Sessions a Day Versus Two
5. What Changed: Flexion, Walking, Sit-to-Stand and Reported Symptoms
6. Limits of the Trial and What the Authors Drew From It
7. Part Two: Preoperative Rehabilitation Before Primary Knee Replacement
8. What the Umbrella Review Gathered on Prehabilitation
9. How the Reviews Were Appraised for Quality
10. Length of Stay, Pain, Function and Motion: What Held Up
11. Why the Authors Stopped Short of Clinical Recommendations
12. Bringing It Together
13. Where the Two Papers Agree
14. Where They Diverge and Which Paper Found What
15. What This Supports in Everyday Caseloads
16. What Remains Unanswered
17. Key Takeaways
18. Post-Test and Course Evaluation

Quinn Millington, PT, DPT, ECS is the instructor of record: the licensed clinician who reviewed this course and signed off on it. The name and credentials print on the certificate.

Disclosures. This course was developed by The ConEd Solution, which has a financial interest in its sale. No outside funding or sponsorship was received. The instructor of record has no affiliation with the authors of the source publication or their institutions.

This course awards 1.0 contact hour (60 min). How you earn them:

1. Complete the course. Every lesson, in order.
2. Pass the post-test. Score 80% or higher. Retakes are allowed.
3. Complete the evaluation. A short form rating each learning objective and the course.
4. Download your certificate. It is issued on completion and stays available in My Account.

The episode time is its measured length. Reading, post-test and evaluation times are estimates.

This course is designed to satisfy the quality requirements state boards set for continuing education. Requirements vary by state, and confirming that a course fits your renewal is up to you. Each state’s own acceptance statement is in the credit panel on this page.

1. Mogensen L, Rasmussen T, Rasmussen J, Molsted S. Efficacy of Active Exercises to Improve Range of Motion in Knee Joint After Total Knee Arthroplasty. A Randomized Controlled Trial. Physiother Res Int. 2026;31(3):e70228. doi:10.1002/pri.70228
2. Zhao Y, Tian C, Tian S, Han W, Shi H, Cao M, Liu J. An umbrella review for preoperative rehabilitation in primary total knee arthroplasty: quality assessment and summary of evidence. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2025;26(1):630. doi:10.1186/s12891-025-08541-y