SAFE sports after JOINT replacements; version 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Returning Safely to high-impact activities after JOINT replacements (SafeJOINTs)
IRAS ID
327418
Contact name
Bernard Liew
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Essex
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Not applicable, Not applicable
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
More patients wish to return to high-impact activities, like running, after a joint replacement. However, high-impact activities are discouraged by surgeons, for fear that they will harm the “new” joint– thus, requiring a second surgery. It is very hard to conduct a 5 to 25-year study following patients over time and assessing the safety of such activities over time. However, computer models can allow us to determine the short- and long-term safety of high- and low-impact activities. Our three sub-projects will address this.
We will recruit people who have successfully returned to sports after a hip/knee replacement. We aim to recruit these participants from two NHS Trust hospitals and from the public. All data collection will occur at the University of Essex (Colchester). In our first sub-project, participants will complete a survey to gather information about their health and activity levels. We will capture motion and force measures and muscle activation patterns, while they will perform various low to high-impact activities. Lastly, participants will wear a small sensor for a week, to measure how much walking and running is done. The objective of this first sub-project is to understand how people move during high- and low-impact activities following a joint replacement. We also want to determine the volume of high- and low-impact activities undertaken in their daily lives.
The second sub-project focuses on simulating the long-term wear of high-impact activities on hip and knee joint implants. The third-sub-project focuses on quantifying the stresses imposed on the bone surrounding the joint implant, associated with different high-impact activities. These two sub-projects involve developing realistic computer bone models and feeding into the models our biomechanics data and activity volumes quantified in the first sub-project.This 36-month project will provide crucial information that clinicians and patients can use to make informed lifestyle decisions after a joint replacement.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/YH/0036
Date of REC Opinion
26 Feb 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion