Elderly people who undergo surgery for a broken hip are more mobile two months later if they begin physical therapy immediately following surgery rather than waiting, according to study findings.

Dr. Joan D. Penrod, from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, and colleagues looked into the effects of early or late physical therapy on mobility at 2 and 6 months after hip fracture surgery among a total of 443 hospitalized patients, average age 81 years.

In particular, the researchers measured the amount of physical therapy between the day of surgery and the third post-operative day, and between the fourth post-operative day out to 8 weeks.

They found that more physical therapy immediately following surgery was associated with better locomotion at 2 months.

“Each additional session from the day of surgery through the third post-operative day was associated with an increase of about 0.4 points on the 14-point locomotion scale at 2 months,” Penrod’s group writes in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

However, the association was smaller and no longer significant by 6 months.

“The findings underscore the need to aggressively treat the post-surgical pain that accompanies hip fracture surgery,” Penrod commented in an interview with Reuters Health.

“Patients with inadequately treated pain may be more likely to refuse or not be offered early physical therapy. At the same time, patients may experience pain following physical therapy and be more likely to miss the next scheduled session,” Penrod pointed out.

“Thus, the benefits of early physical therapy are more likely to be realized if patients’ pain is managed.”

SOURCE: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, July 2004.