Feasibility of repeated early mobilization in orthostatic intolerance after total hip arthroplasty

INTRODUCTION: Orthostatic intolerance (OI) is a barrier for early mobilization and same-day discharge after total hip arthroplasty (THA), with an estimated 30 % of patients affected within the first 6 h after surgery. Since repeated mobilization is known to be valuable in non-surgical OI conditions, we aimed to evaluate the feasibility of an early standardized repeated mobilization procedure as treatment of postoperative OI after THA. METHODS: This study was a single-arm, two-center hypothesis-generating feasibility study in patients undergoing THA. At first mobilization 4 h after surgery patients were categorized as having orthostatic tolerance (OT) or OI. Patients with OI underwent an hourly standardized repeated mobilization procedure until achieving OT or reaching 8 h post-surgery. RESULTS: Of 84 patients screened for OI, 25 (30 %) had OI 4 h postoperatively. Four patients left the study before achieving OT. Of the 21 completing the study per protocol, 16 patients achieved OT at 5 h and the remaining 5 achieved OT at 6 h postoperatively. DISCUSSION: Early repeated mobilization in patients with postoperative OI was feasible and potentially valuable after THA. This hypothesis-generating study calls for future large-scale studies in surgical patients with OI.