Theme lead

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Background

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) research is a multi-modal approach to the design of best-evidence care pathways to enhance recovery of patients undergoing surgery. One important modality of ERAS is exercise and physical activity. Exercise and physical activity is part of first-line, non-surgical patient care and post-operative rehabilitation for many types of surgery. For exercise, the focus can be local (i.e., operated joint muscles and joint function) or more remote or global (i.e., metabolism and health status). In case of physical activity, the focus is almost always metabolism and health status.

​Focus

We want to understand if and how exercise and physical activity can enhance recovery after major surgery.  We investigate exercise and physical activity-interventions before surgery to understand if they can help coordinate non-surgical and surgical care and the decision to have surgery - or impact post-operative recovery, if operated. We investigate exercise and physical activity interventions during hospitalization to understand if and how they can reduce risk and promote early safe discharge. We investigate exercise and physical activity interventions after surgery to understand if and how they can enhance post-operative recovery. We are particularly interested in researching health care interventions that are common practice but are implemented based on tradition more that scientific evidence. We try very hard to ask questions that challenge our own and other’s preconception or cognitive biases. 

We believe that it is not enough to be able to develop fantastic research questions if the efforts to answer them are poor. We therefor conduct “research on research” to identify problems in current research practice. We develop clinical research methodology tools to address identified problems and to help us do better research. 

Examples of ongoing work

• Does Rehabilitation After Total Hip Or Knee Arthroplasty Work? (link goes to Clinicaltrials.gov)  
  

Selected outputs

Espe Pedersen M, Schjødt Jørgensen T, Bandholm T, Ried-Larsen M, Bartholdy C, Runhaar J, Schiphof D, L Bennell K, White D, King LK, Henriksen M.
A Catalog of "Knee Friendly" Aerobic Exercises Developed for Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: An International Patient Survey. ACR Open Rheumatol. 2025 May;7(5):e70052.

Madsen MN, Mikkelsen LR, Rathleff MS, Thorborg K, Kallemose T, Bandholm T.
Hip strengthening exercise dosage is not associated with clinical improvements after total hip arthroplasty - a prospective cohort study (the PHETHAS-1 study). BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2024 Nov 19;25(1):928.

Mark-Christensen T, Thorborg K, Kallemose T, Bandholm T.
Clinical benefit of physical rehabilitation after total hip and knee arthroplasty: A pragmatic, randomized, controlled trial (The DRAW1 trial). Osteoarthr Cartil Open. 2024 Oct 16;6(4):100530.

Poulsen AG, Gravesen JD, Madsen MN, Mikkelsen LR, Bandholm T, Rossen CB.
Patient perspectives on home-based rehabilitation exercise and general physical activity after total hip arthroplasty: A qualitative study (PHETHAS-2). F1000Res. 2023 Jun 26;10:382.

Bandholm, Thomas, Rasmus S. Husted, Anders Troelsen, and Kristian Thorborg.
Changing the Narrative for Exercise-based Prehabilitation: Evidence-informed and Shared Decision Making When Discussing the Need for a Total Knee Arthroplasty with Patients. Osteoarthr Cartil. 2025 Mar 12;7(2):100601.  ​

Husted RS, Troelsen A, Husted H, Grønfeldt BM, Thorborg K, Kallemose T, Rathleff MS, Bandholm T.
Knee-extensor strength, symptoms, and need for surgery after two, four, or six exercise sessions/week using a home-based one-exercise program: a randomized dose-response trial of knee-extensor resistance exercise in patients eligible for knee replacement (the QUADX-1 trial). Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2022 Jul;30(7):973-986.

Bandholm T, Thorborg K, Ardern CL, Christensen R, Henriksen M.
Writing up your clinical trial report for a scientific journal: the REPORT trial guide for effective and transparent research reporting without spin. Br J Sports Med. 2022 Jun;56(12):683-691.

 Jakobsen TL, Jakobsen MD, Andersen LL, Husted H, Kehlet H, Bandholm T.
Quadriceps muscle activity during commonly used strength training exercises shortly after total knee arthroplasty: implications for home-based exercise-selection. J Exp Orthop. 2019 Jul 2;6(1):29.

Bandholm T, Wainwright TW, Kehlet H.
Rehabilitation strategies for optimisation of functional recovery after major joint replacement. J Exp Orthop. 2018 Oct 11;5(1):44.

Bandholm T, Christensen R, Thorborg K, Treweek S, Henriksen M.
Preparing for what the reporting checklists will not tell you: the PREPARE Trial guide for planning clinical research to avoid research waste. Br J Sports Med. 2017 Oct;51(20):1494-1501.