Traditional Chinese medicine ointment combined with tuina therapy in treatment of pain and swelling after total knee arthroplasty

Table 1 Comparison of general data between the treatment and control groups

Group	Sex, M/F	Age (yr)	BMI in kg/m2	Educational level, illiterate/primary school/senior high school/ junior college/college and university	Surgical limb, L/R
Treatment, n = 40	6/34	67.28 ± 5.51	24.44 ± 2.37	2/1/23/12/2/0	22/18
Control, n = 40	10/30	69.07 ± 6.54	24.92 ± 2.24	0/1/26/11/0/2	25/15
χ2/t	1.250	1.332	1.020	6.227	0.464
P value	0.264	0.187	0.310	0.285	0.496

M: Male; F: Female; BMI: Body mass index; L: Left; R: Right.

Table 2 Comparison of visual analog scale scores between the two groups

Group	-3rd d	3rd d	7th d	14th d
Treatment, n = 40	6.75 ± 0.92	5.30 ± 0.79	2.57 ± 0.84	0.80 ± 0.93
Control, n = 40	6.60 ± 0.84	5.65 ± 0.80	4.00 ± 0.85	2.70 ± 1.04
t	0.758	1.965	7.536	8.563
P value	0.451	0.053	0.000	0.000

-3^rd d: 3 d before the operation; 3^rd d: 3 d after the operation; 7^th d: 7 d after the operation; 14^th d: 14 d after the operation.

Table 3 Comparison of skin temperature between the two groups (°C)

Group	-3rd d	3rd d	7th d	14th d
Treatment, n = 40	37.34 ± 0.28	37.21 ± 0.26	36.93 ± 0.21	36.63 ± 0.31
Control, n = 40	37.29 ± 0.34	37.24 ± 0.32	37.09 ± 0.27	36.94 ± 0.32
t	0.755	0.422	2.968	4.423
P value	0.452	0.674	0.004	0.000

-3^rd d: 3 d before the operation; 3^rd d: 3 d after the operation; 7^th d: 7 d after the operation; 14^th d: 14 d after the operation.

Table 4 Comparison of lower limb swelling between the two groups

	Group		t	P value
	Treatment, n = 40	Control, n = 40
Upper circumference in cm
-3 d	53.35 ± 4.94	51.83 ± 4.34	1.461	0.148
3 d	52.83 ± 4.91	51.51 ± 4.29	1.274	0.206
7 d	48.32 ± 4.57	50.53 ± 3.97	2.315	0.023
14 d	45.68 ± 4.69	47.96 ± 3.89	2.374	0.020
Lower circumference in cm
-3 d	39.59 ± 3.58	38.16 ± 3.78	1.734	0.087
3 d	38.96 ± 3.55	37.50 ± 3.85	1.768	0.081
7 d	36.71 ± 2.95	39.21 ± 6.86	2.121	0.037
14 d	34.96 ± 2.96	36.70 ± 4.35	2.095	0.039

-3 d: 3 d before the operation; 3 d: 3 d after the operation; 7 d: 7 d after the operation; 14 d: 14 d after the operation.

Table 5 Comparison of knee range of motion and knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome score between the two groups of patients

Group	Knee range of motion in degrees		KOOS score
	-3rd d	14th d	-3rd d	14th d
Treatment, n = 40	95.23 ± 2.11	115.32 ± 2.12	65.83 ± 1.39	85.52 ± 0.82
Control, n = 40	95.14 ± 2.24	113.34 ± 2.16	65.73 ± 1.33	80.32 ± 1.13
t	0.185	4.138	0.329	23.556
P value	0.854	0.000	0.743	0.000

KOOS: Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome score; -3^rd d: 3 d before the operation; 14^th d: 14 d after the operation.