Postoperative care protocol
infection, thromboembolic, knee joints, pain
INFECTION, BLOOD
The wound area was iced every 3 h, 30 min/time, within 24 h after surgery. After 24 h, the patients were instructed to start out-of-bed activities, quadriceps strengthening exercises, and exercises for the range of motion of knee joints. All patients were given an intravenous drip of antibiotics (cefuroxime sodium; 1.5 g/100 mL) to prevent infection 6 and 24 h after surgery. Additionally, analgesia and thromboembolic prophylaxis were performed. Specifically, an analgesic pump was applied for postoperative self-administered analgesia. If patients were still in pain after the withdrawal of the pump, they were given oral analgesics (imrecoxib tablets, 0.1 g/time, until 2 months after discharge; paracetamol and dihydrocodeine tartrate tablets, 10 mg/time, from hospitalization to two weeks after surgery)twice daily for analgesia. Meanwhile, patients were subcutaneously injected with low-molecular-weight heparin calcium injection (4100IU in 0.4 mL, Hebei Changshan Biochemical Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Hebei, China; 0.4 mL/time) once daily during hospitalization until the third postoperative day and took rivaroxaban tablets (Qilu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Shandong, China; 2.5 mg/day) once daily for 10 days after discharge. The routine blood test of patients was conducted on postoperative days 1 and 3. Blood transfusion was given when Hb concentrations were < 70 g/L, while blood transfusion was decided according to the physical compensation status of patients when Hb concentrations were between 70 and 100 g/L. None of the patients in this study received postoperative blood transfusion after evaluation. After discharge from the hospital, the patient continued to perform quadriceps strengthening exercises and knee joint range of motion exercises according to the doctor’s orders, and underwent regular reexamination until the knee joint function returned to normal.