Patients' Experiences, Satisfaction and Quality of Life With Physiotherapy Follow-Up After Total Knee Arthroplasty: A Phenomenological Qualitative Study Protocol.

Introduction: Available quantitative studies indicate that patients who have undergone Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) experience dissatisfaction. There is a lack of comprehensive information on the experiences, satisfaction, and quality of life of patients after TKA. Hence, there is a need to explore the patients' perspective about the satisfaction and experiences undergoing rehabilitation and to explore the factors influencing quality of life with physiotherapy after 1st and 3rd months of TKA.

Methods: 35 patients with post TKA, aged from 45 years, will participate in semi-structured face-to-face or telephone interviews. The participants will be recruited using criterion-based purposive sampling. The interviews will be audio-recorded and transcribed. NVivo 14V software and Braun and Clarke thematic analysis will be used. Credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability will be ensured.

Results: The transcribed verbatim transcript will be analysed to generate sub-themes and themes using thematic analysis. Irrespective of the responses received from male or female patients' data would be analysed using inductive qualitative analysis to explore their perspectives.

Conclusion: This study is the first qualitative study from lower- and middle-income country that aims to investigate the satisfaction and experiences of patients after undergoing TKA rehabilitation. The efficacy of the data and subsequent suggestions would rely on the insights generated from the qualitative study, which would support the rehabilitation of patients in their later years.