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PURPOSE Healing touch (HT), a nurse-initiated modality, has potential to improve postoperative pain control and restore balance to a patient's energy field to facilitate self-healing. We hypothesized that addition of HT to standard pharmacologic intervention would reduce pain, anxiety, and opioid consumption, and would improve ambulation distance, knee flexion, and patient satisfaction with quality of care in bilateral total knee arthroplasty. SAMPLE Forty-one patients were prospectively randomized to an HT group (n = 20) or a standard treatment (ST) group (n = 21). METHODS For the HT group, HT was administered once daily between 2 daily physical therapy sessions. Pain was assessed using a visual analog scale (VAS) before surgery, before and after HT daily (HT group), or between physical therapy sessions daily (ST group). Anxiety was measured using State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Opioid analgesic consumption was converted into dose equivalents (DE; 10 mg morphine intravenous = 1 DE). Satisfaction was assessed at the 1-month postoperative visit. FINDINGS Demographics were similar. Pain VAS was lower in the HT group than in the ST group but was not significant. Within the HT group, pain VAS after the HT treatment was significantly diminished compared with pre-HT pain VAS (p < .05) except on postoperative Day 1. State anxiety was lower in the HT group but reached significance (p = .046) only on postoperative Day 2. Total opioid DE was lower in the ST group by 0.5 DE. Twenty percent more in the ST group reported overall pain as moderate/severe. One month after surgery, 95% of the HT group, compared with 87% of the ST group, felt that their pain was adequately controlled during the hospital stay. DISCUSSION Healing touch provides another tool that nurses can use to decrease pain in patients undergoing postoperative bilateral total knee arthroplasty.

Evidence-based nursing practice provides the highest quality of patient care. In an orthopaedic setting, the study of outcomes across a patient population offers the ability to determine associations between the treatment regime and function, complication rates, patient satisfaction, and quality of life as evidence for practice. These associations give the orthopaedic nursing community valuable insight into patient results. An outcomes database can both assist nurses in assessing the results of their nursing interventions and in providing the basis for submitting papers to journals and scientific symposiums. These papers can provide information and education for establishment of an evidence-based nursing practice. This article describes the planning, development, and implementation of a comprehensive orthopaedic outcomes program including nursing intervention outcomes at one institution. We offer a step-by-step guide based on our experience for other institutions that plan to initiate an outcomes program with inclusion of nursing outcomes.

Tibiofemoral forces determine polyethylene wear and affect the longevity of total knee prostheses. Previously, investigators relied on theoretic data from mathematical models to predict mechanical forces in the knee. Predictions of tibiofemoral forces are highly variable because of the complex interplay of the muscles involved in activities. Ideally, knee forces should be directly measured. An electronic total knee prosthesis (e-Knee) was developed to directly measure tibiofemoral compressive and tensile forces in vivo. After 13 years of research and development, the e-Knee was implanted into a patient in 2004. Tibiofemoral force data were collected intraoperatively and throughout the postoperative period during activities of daily living and during exercise. Direct measurement of knee forces can lead to a better understanding of the stresses seen following total knee arthroplasty. Information generated by the e-Knee will aid in the improvement of implant design and patient care.