Manual Lymphatic Drainage Therapy in the Knee Joint Functional Rehabilitation After TKA in Diabetic Knee Osteoarthritis Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial

To investigate the clinical effect of manual lymphatic drainage on functional rehabilitation of patients with diabetic knee osteoarthritis. A total of 199 patients with diabetic osteoarthritis who underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA) were enrolled in the hospital and there were 72 males and 127 females in these patients. They were randomly divided into manual lymphatic drainage group (103 cases) and routine care group (96 cases). The manual lymphatic drainage group was treated with manual lymphatic drainage on the basis of routine functional rehabilitation nursing in March, while the routine nursing group only received perioperative nursing for conventional knee replacement. The patients with manual lymphatic drainage and routine nursing were studied before and 1 week, 1 month, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after operation to get the results of the changes of knee active flexion and extension, limb swelling degree, VAS pain score and preoperative group, the difference of HSS score and AKS score of knee joint in 6 months after operation. The active knee flexion activity of patients in the manual lymphatic drainage group was better than that of the routine care group (P < 0.05). The active knee extension and knee swelling were better in the manual lymphatic drainage group than that in the routine nursing group 1 week and 1 month after operation (P < 0.05); there was no significant difference in knee active activity and knee swelling between the two groups in March and June (P > 0.05); The scores of HSS in patients with manual lymphatic drainage in each stage after operation were better than that in the routine care group (P < 0.05). The AKS pain scores of the manual lymphatic drainage group were better than those of the routine care group (P < 0.05). There was no statistical difference (P > 0.05) in the AKS pain scores of the two groups in March and June. The AKS clinical score and AKS function score of patients in the manual lymphatic drainage group were better than that in the routine care group (P < 0.05). In general, manual lymphatic drainage treatment for patients with diabetes after total knee surgery can not only effectively alleviate postoperative knee swelling and pain but can also accelerate knee joint function recovery and improve postoperative satisfaction.