Is Physical Therapy Clearance Before Arthroplasty Home Discharge Necessary?
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT05858086. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
Is Postoperative Physical Therapy Clearance Necessary for Safe Home Discharge After Total Joint Arthroplasty?
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Conventionally, physical therapy (PT) clearance is sought before total joint arthroplasty (TJA) discharge. However, PT staffing limitations may preclude same-day discharge in patients having surgery late in the day. Failed same-day discharge in eligible TJA patients results in unnecessary hospital bed occupancy, which increases costs, limits operating room throughput for patients requiring inpatient admission, and introduces risks associated with longer length-of-stay. In collaboration with an institutional PT department, the investigators developed a protocol for discharging same-day TJA patients without postoperative PT clearance. Immediately preoperatively, PT administers gait training. Patients are then discharged home after ambulating with post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) nurses trained by PT on postoperative mobilization. This allows for the maximum number of patients discharged home, including the last patient of the day, PT staffing limitations notwithstanding. Single-institution pilot data demonstrates no increased risk of falls, emergency room (ER) visits, or readmissions with this process. The investigators propose a prospective, controlled, multicenter study to expand on pilot data. The study aim is to assess safety of day-of-surgery preoperative PT and postoperative ambulation with PACU nursing before TJA discharge. The primary endpoint is postoperative falls, while secondary endpoints include 90-day ER visits, 90-day hospital readmissions, patient-reported outcome measures, and patient satisfaction scores.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT05858086
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 210 participants
Conditions and interventions
Interventions
- Novel same-day discharge protocol after total joint arthroplasty Other
- Conventional postoperative physical therapy clearance Other
Other
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 90 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Sep 26, 2024
- Primary completion
- Aug 31, 2027
- Completion
- Nov 30, 2027
- Last update posted
- Feb 9, 2026
2024 – 2027
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 2
- U.S. states
- 2
- U.S. cities
- 2
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Maryland | Baltimore | Maryland | 21201 | Recruiting |
| Hospital for Special Surgery | New York | New York | 10021 | Not yet recruiting |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT05858086, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Feb 9, 2026 · Synced Sep 6, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT05858086 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.