ABSTRACT

Objective: This study is aimed at the development of evidence-based occupational therapy guidelines for patients undergoing a total knee replacement (TKR) in Korea. Although occupational therapy plays a critical role in their recovery and return to the community, it is not widely provided in Korea. Therefore, this study proposes effective evidence-based interventions for occupational therapy in TKR patients through the development of practice guidelines. Method: We developed the guidelines following the methods in the 'Practice guideline development manual (4th edition)' of the British OT Association. We collected the opinions of health professionals during the initial PICO question stage and selected 66 articles after extracting 7,241 articles from various databases. The recommendations were graded as either a [recommendation] or [suggestion] using the GRADE approach. Results: As the result of this study, recommendations were categorized into 'patient-centered' and 'service-centered.' The patient-centered recommendations include improving the activities of daily living, stabilizing mental health, increasing the level of patient satisfaction, and improving the return to the local community. The service-centered recommendations include the composition of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team that includes occupational therapists and reducing the length of hospital stay through occupational therapy. Conclusions: The guidelines will contribute to a stable early return to the community and a shortening of the hospitalization period for TKR patients, strengthen the competency of orthopedic occupational therapists, and serve as a basis for preparing policies to decrease medical costs for TKR patients.