Continuous Passive Motion (CPM) machine:

A machine used to help rehabilitate a limb (an arm or leg).

CPM is a postoperative treatment method that is designed to aid recovery after joint surgery. In most patients after extensive joint surgery, attempts at joint motion cause pain and as a result, the patient fails to move the joint. This allows the tissue around the joint to become stiff and for scar tissue to form resulting in a joint which has limited range of motion and often may take months of physical therapy to recovery that motion.

Passive range of motion means that the joint is moved without the patient's muscles being used. Continuous Passive Motion devices are machines that have been developed for patients to use after surgery.

Applied postoperatively, this device may be used on an inpatient or an outpatient basis. By using a motorized device to very gradually move the joint, it is possible to significantly accelerate recovery time by decreasing soft tissue stiffness, increasing range of motion, promoting healing of joint surfaces and soft tissue, and preventing the development of motion-limiting adhesions (scar tissue). Interestingly, this is accomplished without patient effort (passively) as the machine moves a joint through a defined (prescribed) range of motion for an extended period of time. Even more surprisingly, studies have shown that patients using CPM devices require less pain medication then patients who have had the same type of surgery and are not using this device.

CPM may be prescribed by orthopedic surgeons following total knee replacement, anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, tendon repair, joint manipulation under anesthesia, arthroscopicdebridement of adhesions, open reduction and internal fixation (stabilization) of intra-articular fractures, rotator cuff repair, articular cartilage microfracture, articular cartilage transplantation and meniscal repair. There are CPM devices for the knee, ankle, shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand.

The physician prescribes how the CPM unit should be used by the patient (speed, duration of usage, amount of motion, rate of increase of motion, etc.).