Shanshan Ai,1,* Sumin Zhao,1,* Lihui Yan,1 Hangying Hu,1 Pengli Niu,2 Yueli Zhu,1,* Meifang Zheng1,* 

1Department of Nursing, Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine of Linping District Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Nursing, The First Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, Liaoning, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Yueli Zhu, Department of Nursing, Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine of Linping District Hospital, No. 15, Baojian Road, Linping District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 311100, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 189 0681 1351, Email 2582840555@qq.com

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the developmental trajectory of movement-evoked pain after knee arthroplasty and analyze the predictors of different developmental trajectory categories.
Patients and Methods: In this study, a total of 178 patients undergoing knee arthroplasty were recruited from the Department of Joint Surgery at a tertiary care hospital in China. Participants completed the General Data Questionnaire, the Social Support Revaluated Scale, and the Pain Catastrophizing Scale on the day before surgery (T1). Movement-evoked pain was assessed using the Pain Numerical Rating Scale at 24 hours (T2), 48 hours (T3), and 72 hours (T4) after knee arthroplasty. The growth mixture model was utilized to identify the developmental trajectories of movement-evoked pain after knee arthroplasty.
Results: Three developmental trajectories of movement-evoked pain after knee arthroplasty were identified: the moderate pain—rise then decline group (47.75%), the moderate pain—continuous decline group (11.80%), and the severe pain—continuous stable group (40.45%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that social support, pain catastrophization, education, disease duration, and operation time were significant predictors of the types of movement-evoked pain in knee arthroplasty patients (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: This study identifies three potential categories of movement-evoked pain developmental trajectories after knee arthroplasty, with the moderate pain—rising then falling group being the most common. Significant predictors include social support, pain catastrophization, education, disease duration, and operation time.

Keywords: Development Trajectory, Knee Arthroplasty, Movement-evoked Pain, Pain