Soffar Ali, Elkohail Ahmed, Sayed Abdelrahman, Elbanna Mohamed, Othieno-P'Otonya Kerementi, Monir Mohammad, Kassem Hassan A, Abdellatif Ahmed E
Trauma and Orthopaedics, Princess Royal University Hospital and Orpington Hospital, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, GBR.
Trauma and Orthopaedics, Princess Royal University Hospital, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, GBR.
Cureus. 2025 Nov 12;17(11):e96693. doi: 10.7759/cureus.96693. eCollection 2025 Nov.
Digital health tools such as smartphone applications, telemedicine platforms, wearable activity sensors, and emerging smart implants are positively influencing postoperative follow-up after joint replacement. This narrative review synthesizes recent advances and evidence across these modalities. Smartphone apps consistently improve patient engagement, adherence, pain management, and functional recovery, while enabling scalable data capture. Wearables provide objective, continuous measures of mobility and range of motion and have shown acceptable accuracy in arthroplasty populations. Combined app-plus-sensor programs, including self-directed rehabilitation, achieve clinical outcomes comparable to standard care in randomized trials and can reduce costs and in-person visits. Telemedicine and home-based telerehabilitation demonstrate noninferiority to face-to-face physiotherapy for total joint arthroplasty, with high patient satisfaction and logistical advantages. Smart implants, though earlier in clinical adoption, yield unique biomechanical insights that may personalize rehabilitation and enable early detection of complications. Key challenges include heterogeneous study designs and metrics, device placement-dependent accuracy, digital literacy and connectivity barriers (especially among older adults or rural patients), data security and regulatory considerations, and technical constraints for implant power and wireless communication. Overall, remote follow-up using apps and wearables is a credible adjunct, or alternative, to conventional pathways after joint replacement; scaling impact will require standardized outcomes, interoperability, robust privacy safeguards, and prospective trials that link digital signals to meaningful clinical endpoints.
智能手机应用程序、远程医疗平台、可穿戴活动传感器和新兴的智能植入物等数字健康工具正在对关节置换术后的随访产生积极影响。这篇叙述性综述综合了这些方式的最新进展和证据。智能手机应用程序持续提高患者参与度、依从性、疼痛管理和功能恢复，同时实现可扩展的数据采集。可穿戴设备提供客观、连续的活动能力和活动范围测量，并在关节置换人群中显示出可接受的准确性。包括自主康复在内的应用程序加传感器组合方案在随机试验中取得了与标准护理相当的临床结果，并且可以降低成本和减少面诊次数。远程医疗和居家远程康复在全关节置换术方面显示出与面对面物理治疗非劣效，患者满意度高且具有后勤优势。智能植入物虽然临床应用尚早，但能提供独特的生物力学见解，可实现个性化康复并能早期发现并发症。关键挑战包括研究设计和指标的异质性、设备放置依赖的准确性、数字素养和连接障碍（尤其是在老年人或农村患者中）、数据安全和监管考虑以及植入物电源和无线通信的技术限制。总体而言，使用应用程序和可穿戴设备进行远程随访是关节置换术后传统随访途径的可靠辅助手段或替代方案；扩大影响将需要标准化的结果、互操作性、强大的隐私保护措施以及将数字信号与有意义的临床终点联系起来的前瞻性试验。
