Column July 27, 2025
Before and After Joint Replacement — Speeding Up Recovery with Korean Medicine
Hyo-seop Kim
Chief Director
Table of Contents
Before surgery: optimizing joint condition
The outcome of joint replacement surgery depends not only on surgical technique but also greatly on the patient's overall condition before surgery. Better muscle strength, nutrition, and immunity translate into faster postoperative recovery.
- Taking Gwanjeoldan: Begin 2 to 4 weeks before surgery to improve blood flow and tissue condition around the joint.
- Acupuncture: Relieves muscle tension and manages pain around the surgical site.
- Whole-body tonification: Replenishes qi and blood to lay the foundation for postoperative recovery.
After surgery: managing swelling, pain, and rehabilitation
The main challenges after surgery are swelling, pain, and limited joint range of motion.
- Pharmacopuncture: Effective in relieving swelling and inflammation around the surgical site.
- Herbal medicine: A modified Ssanghwa-tang restores qi and blood and stabilizes digestive function.
- Acupuncture: Manages surgical pain and promotes recovery of joint range of motion.
Postoperative Korean medicine timeline
1–2 weeks after surgery: Focused care for swelling and pain.
3–6 weeks after surgery: Recovery of joint range of motion plus muscle strengthening.
2–3 months after surgery: Recovery of normal walking and stabilization of overall condition.
Precautions
- Acupuncture is not applied directly to the surgical site — to rule out infection risk, only adjacent areas are treated.
- If you are taking anticoagulants, drug interactions must be checked when prescribing herbal medicine.
- Ideally, your orthopedic surgeon and Korean medicine doctor work together as a team.