ReviewThe archives of bone and joint surgery2026
Clinical Outcomes and Complication Rates in Fast-Track Versus Routine after Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Review in The archives of bone and joint surgery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objectives: Fast-track or enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) pathways have been increasingly adopted in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) to optimize perioperative care, yet their comparative effectiveness and safety relative to routine pathways remain incompletely defined. This systematic review and meta-analysis compared the effects of fast-track versus routine perioperative care on length of hospital stay (LOS), postoperative pain, complications, and readmissions in patients undergoing primary TKA. Methods: A systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Web of Science was performed from inception to January 2025 using MeSH terms. Primary outcomes were LOS and postoperative pain, with complications and readmissions assessed as secondary outcomes. Risk of bias was assessed using Cochrane RoB 2 for RCTs and ROBINS-I for non-randomized studies. A random-effects meta-analysis was conducted due to anticipated heterogeneity. Results: Nine studies (total 2607 patients) met inclusion criteria. Fast-track care significantly reduced LOS (WMD: -2.41 days, 95% CI: -3.18 to -1.64). Postoperative pain was slightly higher in the fast-track group at 24h (MD: 0.98, 95% CI: -0.1 to 2.05) and at 2 weeks (MD: 0.33, 95% CI: -0.04 to 0.7), neither reaching statistical significance. Methodological quality was limited, with moderate to serious risk of bias in non-randomized studies and high risk of bias in all randomized trials. Conclusion: Overall, the available evidence suggests that fast-track rehabilitation following TKA substantially reduces hospitalization without clinically meaningful or sustained increases in postoperative pain. These findings support the use of fast-track pathways to enhance perioperative efficiency in TKA, while highlighting the need for higher-quality randomized studies to better define their effects on pain and safety outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.