Live Music Therapy During Rehabilitation After Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a common orthopedic surgery known to be very painful. Emphasis has been placed on TKA pain management for postoperative care and during rehabilitation. Music therapy is used as a nonpharmacologic intervention for pain management and to promote rehabilitation exercise adherence. The objective of this study was to explore the effects of music therapy/physical therapy co-treatment using live music-supported exercise on pain and exercise adherence during a lower extremity pedaling exercise to facilitate range of motion (ROM). The researcher randomized 32 TKA inpatient rehabilitation participants to an intervention or control group. Following baseline measures, two study intervals occurred with the intervention group receiving live music for the first interval followed by no music during the second interval; the control group received no music during both intervals. Self-reported pain measures, observed pain measures, and observed measures of pedaling adherence were collected for each participant. A mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures showed no significant effects for self-reported pain perception. For observed pain, ANOVA results did show a significant interaction (p < .05) between group and study interval. There were no statistically significant effects for pedaling adherence. Conclusions show an important role for live music therapy intervention on observed pain while engaged in co-treatment during this lower extremity ROM exercise. Additional implications and limitations are discussed.