HSS hip & knee surgeon Peter K. Sculco, MD offered his perspective to Orthopedics Today on treating knee stiffness following a total knee replacement.

"[Knee stiffness is] a vexing problem that, with manipulation, we can treat with success 85% of the time. For those resistant types, it can lead to surgical treatments which have their own varying success rates, but, in essence, it is a problem we still need to work on, as a field, to improve both its prevention and also how we better treat it," said Dr. Sculco.

According to Dr. Sculco, knee stiffness can be caused by a variety of factors.

"Patient-related factors... are demographic and related to comorbidities. You have knee-related factors, most significantly previous surgical procedures or having preoperative stiffness. You have mental health-related factors, and you have nerve-related factors. So, there is a long list of things that can lead to a postoperative stiff knee," he said.

Additionally, Dr. Sculco said knee stiffness could be treated with manipulation under anesthesia (MUA).

Read the full article at healio.com [registration required]. This also appeared in the February 2018 print edition.