[Digital rehabilitation with smart devices : Clinical evidence and practical implications]

Digital rehabilitation using apps, wearables, sensor feedback, and remote follow-up is being increasingly used in orthopedics. Clinically, the key issue is not technical novelty but whether function, mobility, adherence, and healthcare costs are significantly improved compared with conventional care.

To provide a clinically oriented appraisal of current evidence on smart-device-based rehabilitation in orthopedics and derive practical implications for everyday care.

Clinically oriented narrative review with a structured appraisal of selected systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and relevant original studies on smart-device-based rehabilitation in orthopedics.

The strongest evidence is available after knee and hip arthroplasty. App-based telerehabilitation usually achieves comparable functional outcomes to conventional rehabilitation and may improve selected performance measures and reduce physiotherapy use. Simple activity trackers mainly increase step count but have smaller effects on pain and disease-specific scores. Sensor-based biofeedback and VR/AR approaches appear more promising but are partly supported by smaller and heterogeneous studies. Outside arthroplasty, positive signals exist for hip fracture rehabilitation, knee osteoarthritis, and selected spine programs.

Digital rehabilitation is not a uniform intervention. In practice, patient selection, adequate instruction, feedback, and a realistic appraisal of evidence quality are more important than choosing the newest device.