Exercise intervention
hip flexion, hip abduction, pain
We implemented the institutional ERP protocol for all trial participants. The details of the ERP protocol are attached as supplementary material (Supplementary Table The phase 1 exercise program started on postoperative day 1 (patient condition: patients experienced limited mobility due to pain; patients required help because of pain at the surgical site when sitting or lying down). During this phase, the exercises consisted of stretching and low-intensity resistance exercises (i.e., stretching the neck, shoulder, wrist, and ankle, pelvic stretching, and posterior pelvic tilt). We implemented phase 2 on postoperative days 2 and 3 (patient condition: patients able to perform daily activities without help or to be able to walk for > 20 min at a time, but still experiencing discomfort). In this phase, in addition to phase 1 exercises, participants performed stretching, resistance exercises (i.e., leg raise, leg circle, bridge, and squeezing a ball with the thighs) and core resistance exercises (i.e., including arm circles, triceps extensions, and posterior pelvic tilt in the supine position). The phase 3 exercise program was performed between postoperative day 4 to hospital discharge (patient condition: can perform daily activities and self-care activities without discomfort. Phase 3 program was a continuation of Phase 2, with balancing exercises including one-leg standing, one-leg calf raises, hip adduction, hip abduction, hip extension, and hip flexion. Each movement was performed in sets of 10 repetitions for isotonic exercises or 10 s for isometric exercises.The participants in the usual care group received the same preoperative and postoperative ERP as the exercise group (Supplementary Table 