Pickleballers bounce back after joint replacement

Love pickleball, but facing a knee or hip replacement? Odds are you’ll return to the court in no time, a new study suggests.

More than seven of 10 regular pickleball players pick up their paddle promptly following joint replacement surgery.

What’s more, three-quarters say they’re playing as well as before—or even better.

“The majority of players returned to play at a similar skill level, duration and frequency, with the majority returning to play by six months postoperatively,” the research team led by Dr. Adam Taylor, an assistant professor of clinical orthopedic surgery at the University of California-Davis, concluded.

Racket sports are very popular in the U.S., with pickleball alone seeing a 159% increase in participation since 2019, researchers said in background notes.

But some seniors facing a knee or hip replacement have concerns that their new artificial joint might affect their play or keep them off the court altogether.

For the new study, researchers surveyed nearly 1,300 patients who’d received at least one joint replacement between 2014 and 2023. The average age of study participants was 67.

About 13% had played a racket sport recently, within two years of their surgery, and another 25% had last picked up a paddle or racket more than two years before their joint replacement.

Results showed that:

• About 72% of recent players got back on the court soon after their surgery, compared with 30% of people who hadn’t played for at least two years.
• About 44% of pickleball players returned to the court within four to six months of their surgery, compared with 36% of tennis players and 39% of other racket sport players.
• About 77% of pickleball players said they played as well as or better than they did prior to their surgery, along with 90% of tennis players and 87% of other racket sport players.

Researchers found no difference in return to play based on people’s self-reported skill level. About 73% of beginners, 76% of intermediate and 66% of advanced players returned to the court following surgery.

The most common reason for people not resuming pickleball play was loss of interest, with 35% of patients responding “meh” to the prospect.

By comparison, about 30% of tennis players said they didn’t return to play because they feared injury, researchers said.

“Many orthopedic surgeons will allow their patients to return to pickleball once they’ve recovered from their knee or hip replacement, but with certain precautions,” Ioonna Félix, a physical therapist with the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, said in an article on the hospital’s website. “On average, this is typically about three to six months after surgery.”

Once a person’s surgeon and physical therapist has cleared them for play, Felix recommends that they ease their way back into their racket sport.

“Start by playing doubles,” said Felix, who was not part of the new study. “This will be less demanding for you physically and place less stress on the replaced joint. It is best to build the stress through the new joint slowly as your tolerance grows.”

Researchers presented their findings at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, which took place in San Diego.

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