WBAT Meaning: Weight-Bearing as Tolerated

Quick answer. WBAT is the medical abbreviation for weight-bearing as tolerated: you may put as much weight through the injured limb as is comfortable. NWB means non-weight-bearing, no weight at all. TTWB, toe-touch weight-bearing, lets the foot rest on the floor for balance only. PWB, partial weight-bearing, allows the share of body weight your surgeon sets. FWB means no limit.

Key takeaways

9 points

WBAT, weight-bearing as tolerated, lets comfort set the load. It is not unlimited, and it is not pushing through pain.
NWB means no weight at all; TTWB or TDWB lets the foot touch the floor for balance only; PWB allows a set amount; FWB removes the limit on load.
"Toe-touch" has no single agreed number. In a survey of surgeons and rehabilitation professionals, interpretations averaged about 13% of body weight but ranged from 1% to 100%, so ask for a figure.⁠⁵
Small loads are hard to judge for everyone: orthopedic surgeons demonstrating toe-touch stayed within the limit 40% of the time,⁠⁶ and patients' steps landed in the prescribed touch-down range only 27% to 31% of the time.⁠⁷
After hip fracture surgery in adults over 60, restricted weight-bearing went with more complications and higher 30-day mortality than weight-bearing as tolerated,⁠¹⁰ and patients aged 75 and over could not keep to a partial limit.⁠⁸
After ankle fracture fixation, weight-bearing started within three weeks gave better early function and a quicker return to work, with no clear increase in complications, in mostly lower-risk patients.⁠¹
Unloading costs muscle quickly: five days in a leg cast reduced quadriceps size by 3.5% and strength by 9% in healthy young men.⁠¹¹
Crutch tops sit 1 to 2 inches below the armpits, weight goes through the hands, and the good leg leads going upstairs.⁠¹²
Calf pain, swelling, warmth or redness needs a doctor soon; chest pain or sudden breathlessness needs emergency help immediately.⁠¹³

What do NWB, TTWB, TDWB, PWB, WBAT and FWB mean?

These are the terms that appear on discharge paperwork and in physical therapy notes. They describe load, not activity.

Status	Short form	How much weight
Non-weight-bearing	NWB	No weight at all through the limb. The foot does not touch the ground, even for balance.
Touch-down or toe-touch weight-bearing	TDWB / TTWB	The foot may rest on the floor for balance only. Think of resting it on an egg without breaking the shell.
Partial weight-bearing	PWB	A specified share of your body weight may pass through the limb — frequently expressed in pounds or kilograms rather than as a fraction.
Weight-bearing as tolerated	WBAT	As much weight as comfort allows, with you deciding in the moment and adjusting as it changes.
Full weight-bearing	FWB	No restriction on load. This is not the same as no restriction on activity.

What does WBAT mean in medical terms and physical therapy?

WBAT stands for weight-bearing as tolerated. It is an order, written by the surgeon and carried into physical therapy, that says how much load a healing limb may take: as much as you can tolerate without significant pain. It appears on discharge paperwork, in therapy notes and on referral forms, usually alongside the other abbreviations in the table above.

Orders often name the limb as well. WBAT RLE means weight-bearing as tolerated on the right lower extremity, the right leg; LLE is the left leg and BLE both legs. The same shorthand goes with the other levels, as in NWB LLE for no weight on the left leg, so read the whole line rather than the first word.

Where the order is toe-touch or partial, look for a number. Without one, the abbreviation means different things to different clinicians, and the researchers who surveyed them recommend that the terms never be used without a descriptor, such as PWB at 40%.⁠⁵ If your paperwork gives a level without a figure, it is a fair question to ask before you leave.

What does weight-bearing status mean after surgery or a fracture?

After a fracture, a repair, or a reconstruction, the tissue that is healing needs two things that pull against each other. It needs some mechanical load, because bone, tendon and cartilage all respond to being used. And it needs protection from too much load, because excessive force at the wrong stage can disturb what is knitting together.

Weight-bearing status is how a surgeon sets that balance for one person at one point in healing. It is a prescription about force, and it changes as healing progresses. A review of partial weight-bearing after lower-limb orthopedic surgery describes exactly this trade-off, and notes that hip, knee, ankle and foot procedures commonly warrant a restriction.⁠³

It is not a comment on how well you are doing. Two people with similar injuries can be given different instructions because the repair, the bone quality, and the surgeon's judgment all differ.

What are the five weight-bearing levels, from NWB to FWB?

The five levels form a ladder from no load to full load. Most people move up it in stages rather than jumping, and the level you are on is decided in person at each review.

What does NWB (non-weight-bearing) mean in medical terms?

No weight at all through the limb. The foot does not touch the ground, even for balance.

Equipment usually used: Axillary crutches are the default and the cheapest. Forearm crutches suit a longer spell and people steady on their feet. A rolling walker is the choice where balance or arm strength is the limiting factor rather than the leg. For a below-knee injury where the knee bends freely, a knee scooter lets the shin rest on a padded platform and is far less tiring; a hands-free crutch that straps to the thigh does the same job and leaves both hands free. A wheelchair is a reasonable choice, not a defeat, when the upper-body demand cannot be sustained.
What gait training covers: The three-point pattern first: both crutches and the injured leg go forward together, then the sound leg swings through. Then the parts that catch people out at home — getting out of a chair without putting the foot down, turning, doorways, curbs, and carrying anything at all. On stairs the rule is that the sound leg leads going up and the crutches and injured leg lead coming down. Expect it to be hard work. In 31 healthy adults averaging 21 years old, non-weight-bearing crutch walking along a corridor measured 4.57 METs with a mean heart rate of 117 beats per minute, and 5.06 METs going up a flight of stairs⁠⁴ — moderate exercise, in young fit people, just to cross a room.
When it is used: Early after some fractures and repairs, where any load risks displacing what is healing.

What do TTWB and TDWB mean? Toe-touch and touch-down weight-bearing

The foot may rest on the floor for balance only. Think of resting it on an egg without breaking the shell.

What carries the rest: The limb steadies you; it does not carry you.
Equipment usually used: The same crutches or walker as non-weight-bearing. The equipment does not change here; the instruction does, which is why this level is easy to misunderstand as a relaxation of the rules rather than a different rule.
What gait training covers: Learning what almost-no-load feels like, which is harder than learning none at all. A bathroom scale gives you the sensation to copy — press down until it reads roughly the weight of your own leg and no more — and your therapist then watches whether that survives contact with walking. Put the foot down flat rather than pointing the toe: driving through the toe loads the limb far more than it looks, and the name toe-touch is misleading about exactly that.
When it is used: A step up from non-weight-bearing, often used to help balance while protecting the repair.

What does PWB (partial weight-bearing) mean?

A specified share of your body weight may pass through the limb — frequently expressed in pounds or kilograms rather than as a fraction. This is the level that is hardest to judge accurately, which the section below covers.

Equipment usually used: Two crutches or a walker to begin with, stepping down to one crutch or a cane — held in the hand opposite the injured leg, which is the part most people get wrong — as the allowance rises. The device comes away gradually rather than on a single day.
What gait training covers: Calibrating the target, then keeping it. The scale gives you a starting sensation; pressure-sensing insoles and audio or visual biofeedback do it more accurately, and trials of them report better precision without more complications.⁠³ The harder half is transferring it to real walking, stairs and uneven ground, because standing still on a scale is a different task from loading a limb mid-stride.⁠³ Ask your therapist to re-check the target at follow-up rather than trusting memory: adherence measured objectively is poor, worst in older and heavier patients, and repeated education is what the evidence points to as the fix.⁠³
When it is used: A staged return to loading, where the target usually rises over several weeks.

What does WBAT (weight-bearing as tolerated) mean?

As much weight as comfort allows, with you deciding in the moment and adjusting as it changes.

What carries the rest: Whatever support you still need, reducing as comfort improves.
When it is used: Once the repair is judged stable enough that pain is a safe guide.

What does FWB (full weight-bearing) mean?

No restriction on load. This is not the same as no restriction on activity — running, jumping and sport are usually cleared separately and later.

What carries the rest: None required, though a limp may persist for a while.
When it is used: The end of the ladder, though impact activities are usually cleared separately.

The order matters more than the labels: knowing which rung you are on tells you what comes next, and knowing what comes next is usually what people actually want when they look this up.

What does weight-bearing as tolerated (WBAT) actually allow?

WBAT is the instruction people most often misread, in both directions.

It does not mean unlimited. It means comfort is being used as the guide, and comfort is a real limit. If putting weight through the limb produces sharp pain, that is the signal to put less through it.

It also does not mean waiting until it stops hurting. Some ache and stiffness during loading is expected, and holding back entirely slows the return of normal walking.

The practical test. Pain that eases as you move and settles afterward is usually load you can work with. Pain that sharpens with each step, or that leaves the limb more swollen and sore the next morning, means you have gone past the useful range for now.

How much weight is toe-touch weight-bearing?

Less than most people think they are putting down, and less precisely defined than the abbreviation suggests. Published definitions put toe-touch weight-bearing at around 20% of body weight, or 10 to 15 kg (about 22 to 33 lb), and partial weight-bearing at 30% to 50% of body weight.⁠⁵ Some hospitals set their own figure: one trauma center defined touch-down weight-bearing as 25 lb.⁠⁷

The people who write and teach the orders do not agree either. In a survey of 78 orthopedic surgeons and 64 rehabilitation professionals in the United Kingdom, the average interpretation of TTWB was about 13% of body weight and of PWB about 43%, but individual answers ran anywhere from 1% to 100% for both.⁠⁵ When the rehabilitation professionals then demonstrated the loads on a scale, they put down less than they had predicted, by about 5 percentage points of body weight for toe-touch and 23 for partial weight-bearing.⁠⁵

Toe-touch loading, measured
Study	Who was measured	What they found
Rubin and colleagues, 2010⁠⁶	25 orthopedic surgeons, demonstrating the orders they write	40% stayed within the toe-touch limit measured in kilograms; 52% went over the maximum, by 15.9 kg on average
Ruiz and colleagues, 2014⁠⁷	21 patients ordered touch-down weight-bearing (25 lb), at discharge and at first follow-up	31% of steps at discharge and 27% at follow-up fell in the 15 to 35 lb range; most steps were too light at discharge and too heavy at follow-up
Thompson and colleagues, 2018⁠⁵	64 rehabilitation professionals, demonstrating the loads they had described	Demonstrated loads were lower than predicted, by about 5 percentage points of body weight for toe-touch and 23 for partial weight-bearing

What to do with that. Ask your surgeon or therapist to put a number on a toe-touch or partial order, in pounds, kilograms or percent of body weight, and to check it with you on a scale or a pressure-sensing insole. In the trauma center study, therapists taught the limit with spoken cues 87% of the time and used a scale only 1% of the time.⁠⁷ A scale gives you a concrete load to copy, though it does not reproduce walking, as the next section explains.⁠³

Why is partial weight-bearing so hard to judge accurately?

If you have been told to put a set number of pounds through your leg, you have probably been shown the bathroom-scale method: press down until the dial reads your target, and try to remember what that felt like.

It is better than nothing, and it is not reliable. The review of current standards notes that household scales do not reproduce the demands of walking, and are associated with poor accuracy over time when compared against biofeedback devices.⁠³ Standing still on a scale is a different task from loading a limb mid-stride.

Research has looked at giving people live feedback instead. A randomized trial in healthy older adults compared audio biofeedback against the scale method for learning a partial weight-bearing target, measuring actual load with sensor insoles across a range of activities. Audio biofeedback was no better than the scale: in both groups, loading was above the 20 kg target range when walking and on steps and below it when standing, and older age, lower cognitive scores and a higher body mass index went with overloading.⁠²

What this means for you. If your target matters, ask your physical therapist to check it with you rather than relying on memory. Ask them to watch you on stairs and on uneven ground, not only walking a corridor.

How do you use crutches, a walker or a cane on a weight limit?

The equipment carries the load your leg is not allowed to, so how it fits and how you use it matter as much as the order itself.

Fitting the equipment
Device	How it should fit	The rule people get wrong
Crutches	Tops 1 to 2 inches below the armpits, handgrips level with the top of the hip line, elbows slightly bent when holding the grips⁠¹²	Weight goes through the hands, not the underarm pads, which press on the nerves and blood vessels in the armpit⁠¹²
Cane	The top reaches the crease of the wrist⁠¹²	Held in the hand opposite the side that needs support⁠¹²
Walker	For balance problems that need more support than crutches give⁠¹²	Never used on stairs or escalators⁠¹²

Walking without putting the foot down. Lean forward and place the crutches about a foot ahead, shift your weight onto them, bring your body forward between them, then step normally with the good leg and move the crutches ahead again, keeping your eyes forward rather than on your feet.⁠¹² It is harder work than it looks, as the energy measurements under NWB show.

Stairs. Going up, lead with the good foot and keep the injured foot raised behind you; coming down, hold the injured foot up in front and hop down each step on the good foot. Sitting and moving up or down one step at a time on your bottom is a safe alternative.⁠¹²

Chairs. To sit, back up to the chair, hold both crutches in one hand, feel for the chair with the other and lower yourself slowly. To stand, move to the front of the seat, hold the crutches on the injured side and push up through the good leg.⁠¹²

At home. Clear throw rugs, cords and spills from your paths, keep stairs free of clutter, add night-lights, set up bathroom safety equipment, keep what you need within reach, and carry things in a backpack or apron so your hands stay free for the crutches.⁠¹² More detail is in home safety after hip or knee replacement.

How long does each weight-bearing stage last?

There is no universal timetable, and this is the honest answer rather than a hedge. The same review found that targets and progression schedules remain surgeon-dependent and inconsistently standardized across practice.⁠³

Timing is also an active research question. A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials compared early against late weight-bearing after surgical fixation of ankle fractures in adults, examining both functional recovery and complication rates.⁠¹ That the question warranted a meta-analysis tells you it is genuinely debated.

What follows from that. A timetable you read online is not evidence about your own repair. If your instruction and something you have read disagree, the instruction wins, and the question is worth asking at your next appointment rather than resolving yourself.

Does early weight-bearing help after ankle fracture surgery?

For this operation, the trials now point one way. Pooling five randomized trials with 1,030 adults, the meta-analysis found that weight-bearing started within three weeks of ankle fracture fixation gave better ankle function scores at six weeks and three months and a quicker return to work than waiting four weeks or more, with similar complication rates.⁠¹ The authors note that several trials excluded people with a body mass index over 30 or with more complex fractures, and that many patients were under 65, so the finding applies mainly to lower-risk patients.⁠¹ It describes groups rather than your ankle: the instruction on your paperwork still decides.

What happens if you put too much, or too little, weight on the leg?

Too much load, too early risks disturbing the repair. That is the risk the restriction exists to manage.

Too little load, for too long has its own cost. Muscle is lost quickly when a limb is unloaded, joints stiffen, balance confidence erodes, and the return to normal walking takes longer. This is why restrictions are staged rather than simply held until healing is complete. How quickly muscle goes is measurable: in healthy young men whose leg was immobilized in a cast, quadriceps size fell by 3.5% and strength by 9% after five days, and by 8.4% and 23% after fourteen.⁠¹¹

Both are real, which is why the instruction is specific and why it changes over time.

Why are older adults often allowed WBAT after a hip fracture?

Because in frail older adults, restricting weight-bearing tends to restrict walking itself, and the restriction is rarely achievable anyway. In a national surgical quality database of 4,918 patients over 60 having surgery for a hip fracture, most were allowed to bear weight as tolerated afterward. After adjusting for health and the procedure, those with restrictions had higher odds of any adverse event, delirium, infection, transfusion, a longer hospital stay and death within 30 days; rates of blood clots, return to the operating room and readmission did not differ.⁠¹⁰

The restriction also seems to be beyond most older patients. Measured with insole sensors after standard physical therapy training, only one of the patients aged 75 and over treated for hip fracture managed to keep to a partial limit of 20 kg, and only briefly; 69% put down more than twice the limit. By contrast, 89% of patients aged 18 to 40 with ankle fractures held the limit for nearly the whole test.⁠⁸ In 41 older patients with the same type of hip fracture, those told to keep to partial weight-bearing walked more slowly and scored lower on mobility than those told to bear full weight, yet put the same load through the leg.⁠⁹

None of this means every older adult is cleared for full load after every hip operation. It means that WBAT after a hip fracture is usually a deliberate choice rather than a lax one; the authors of the database study call immediate weight-bearing as tolerated the evidence-based guideline for these patients.⁠¹⁰ For the rest of recovery, see falls and balance, osteoporosis and bone health, and, for a planned operation, hip replacement.

How do children manage crutches and weight-bearing limits?

The terms are the same, and a few things differ in practice.

Children heal faster, so restricted stages are often shorter than an adult would expect for a comparable injury.

Partial weight-bearing is difficult for a young child to perform. Judging a set load through a limb requires a kind of deliberate control that most young children cannot sustain, particularly when distracted or tired. Instructions for children are therefore more often at the ends of the ladder — non-weight-bearing or as tolerated — with the equipment doing the enforcing.

Crutches need to fit and need teaching. A child on adult-height crutches will find a way around them. Time spent with a pediatric physical therapist on the stairs at home is worth more than the same time on level ground.

Expect the limp to outlast the restriction. Walking normally again is a separate piece of work from healing, and it is the part physical therapy addresses — a persistent limp after the restriction lifts is worth raising, as is any change in how a child walks such as toe walking.

When should you call your surgeon about weight-bearing?

Which problems mean calling your surgeon or clinic the same day?

A sudden change in pain when weight goes through the limb, particularly if it was settling and then sharpened
A new noise — a click, a snap, or a grinding sensation under load
Swelling that increases rather than easing as the days pass
The limb giving way or feeling unstable
Calf pain, warmth, or swelling, which needs assessing promptly and separately: with tenderness or redness, these are the signs of a deep vein thrombosis, a clot in a leg vein⁠¹³
Any accidental full load during a restricted stage — a stumble or a missed step is worth reporting rather than watching

Do not wait for the clinic with chest pain or discomfort that worsens with a deep breath or a cough, difficulty breathing, a fast or irregular heartbeat, coughing up blood, or lightheadedness or fainting. These can be signs of a clot in the lungs and need emergency medical help immediately.⁠¹³

If you are unsure which level you are on, or your paperwork and your memory disagree, call and ask. It is a short conversation and it is the whole basis of your recovery.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does WBAT mean I can walk normally?

Not immediately. It means load is limited by comfort rather than by a set figure, so most people build up over days rather than switching straight to normal walking. Support is often still needed at first, and a limp can persist after the restriction lifts — that part is usually addressed by physical therapy rather than by time alone.

Why did my status change at my appointment?

Because it is meant to. Weight-bearing status is staged and reviewed as healing progresses, so moving from non-weight-bearing to partial, or from partial to as tolerated, is the expected path rather than a surprise. The change is based on how your repair looks at that point, which is why it is decided in person.

Can I shower or drive while non-weight-bearing?

Both depend on which limb is involved and what else was done, so they are questions for your own surgical team. Showering usually needs a plan for keeping a dressing or cast dry and for not needing the limb to steady yourself. Driving is a separate clearance and is not implied by any weight-bearing status.

What is the difference between toe-touch and partial weight-bearing?

Toe-touch allows the foot to rest on the ground for balance only, carrying essentially no load. Partial weight-bearing allows a specified share of your body weight through the limb. Toe-touch is the more restrictive of the two, and the foot touching the floor is what makes it easy to confuse with light partial loading.

What does NWB mean on my discharge paperwork?

NWB is non-weight-bearing: no load at all through that limb, and the foot does not touch the ground even for balance. Crutches, a walker or a knee scooter carry you instead. It is the most restrictive of the five levels and is usually used early, where any load risks disturbing what is healing.

How much weight is partial weight-bearing?

Whatever figure your surgeon specified, which is why the instruction is given in pounds or kilograms rather than as a fraction. There is no standard amount. A review of current standards found targets and progression schedules remain surgeon-dependent and inconsistently standardized, so a number you read elsewhere is not evidence about your own repair.

How do I know if I am putting the right amount of weight through my leg?

Not reliably by memory, which is the honest answer. The bathroom-scale method is better than nothing, but household scales do not reproduce the demands of walking and are associated with poor accuracy over time compared against biofeedback devices. Ask your physical therapist to check your target with you, and to watch you on stairs and uneven ground rather than only along a corridor.

Can I put weight on my leg if it does not hurt?

Only if your instruction allows it. Weight-bearing status is a prescription about force, not about comfort, and the absence of pain does not mean the repair is ready for load. If your paperwork says non-weight-bearing or a set partial figure, that stands regardless of how the limb feels.

What happens if I accidentally put weight on a non-weight-bearing leg?

Report it rather than watch it. A single stumble or missed step often causes no harm, but whether it did depends on what was repaired and how far through healing you are, and only your surgical team can judge that. Call the clinic and describe what happened.

How long will I be non-weight-bearing?

There is no universal timetable, and that is the accurate answer rather than a hedge. Progression is decided in person at each review based on how your repair looks, and timing is still an active research question — early versus late weight-bearing after ankle fracture fixation has warranted its own meta-analysis of randomized trials.

Is weight-bearing status different for children?

The terms are the same, but partial weight-bearing is difficult for a young child to perform, because judging a set load takes deliberate control most young children cannot sustain when tired or distracted. Instructions for children therefore tend to sit at the ends of the ladder — non-weight-bearing or as tolerated — with equipment doing the enforcing. Children also heal faster, so restricted stages are often shorter.

Why do I still limp after being cleared for full weight-bearing?

Because walking normally again is a separate piece of work from healing. Full weight-bearing removes the restriction on load; it does not restore the muscle, the joint range or the movement pattern that were lost while the limb was protected. That part is what physical therapy addresses, and a limp that persists is worth raising rather than waiting out.

What does WBAT RLE mean on an order?

Weight-bearing as tolerated on the right lower extremity, which is the right leg. LLE is the left leg and BLE both legs. The limb abbreviation tells you which leg the instruction covers, and the same shorthand is used with NWB, TTWB and PWB.

Is TDWB the same as TTWB?

They are used for the same instruction: the foot touches the floor for balance and carries almost no weight. Neither has one agreed number. Published definitions put toe-touch at around 20% of body weight or 10 to 15 kg,⁠⁵ one trauma center defined touch-down as 25 lb,⁠⁷ and clinicians in one survey interpreted toe-touch as anything from 1% to 100% of body weight, so ask yours for a figure.⁠⁵

Is weight-bearing as tolerated the same as full weight-bearing?

No. Full weight-bearing removes the limit on load. Weight-bearing as tolerated still has a limit, but the limit is your comfort rather than a number, so most people build up over days and keep using a walker, crutches or a cane until walking is comfortable.

How do I go down stairs on crutches without putting weight on my leg?

Hold the injured foot up in front of you and hop down each step on your good foot; going up, lead with the good foot and keep the injured foot raised behind you. If that feels unsafe, sit and move up or down one step at a time on your bottom.⁠¹²

Sources

Egu C, Akil H, Hakim RA, et al. Early vs late weight bearing after ankle fracture fixation: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Foot & Ankle International. 2026;47(2):174–183. PMID 41472367. Five randomized trials, 1,030 adults.
von Aesch AV, Häckel S, Kämpf T, Baur H, Bastian JD. Audio-biofeedback versus the scale method for improving partial weight-bearing adherence in healthy older adults: a randomised trial. European Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery. 2024;50(6):2915–2924. PMID 39154064.
Kunz EM, Foster DT, Tehrany PM, Sedigh A, Kachooei AR. Partial weight-bearing after lower extremity surgery: a review of current standards, innovations, and patient compliance. Archives of Bone and Joint Surgery. 2026;14(1):16–23. PMID 42005418.
Moran J, Murphy A, Murphy D, et al. The energy expenditure of non-weight bearing crutch walking on the level and ascending stairs. Gait & Posture. 2015;42(1):23–26. PMID 25891530.
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31 healthy adults, mean age 21.6 years, mobilizing non-weight-bearing on elbow crutches along a 30 m corridor and up a flight of 13 stairs, with energy expenditure measured by indirect calorimetry. Level-ground crutch walking measured VO2 16.4 ml/kg/min and 4.57 METs with a mean heart rate of 117.06 bpm; stair climbing measured 17.85 ml/kg/min and 5.06 METs. The authors note that the increased energy demands should be considered by physical therapists when instructing patients on crutch use.
Thompson SG, Phillip RD, Roberts A. How do orthopaedic surgeons and rehabilitation professionals interpret and assess ‘toe touch’ weight bearing and ‘partial’ weight bearing status in the rehabilitation setting? BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. 2018;4(1):e000326. doi:10.1136/bmjsem-2017-000326 (PMID 29629184)
Rubin G, Monder O, Zohar R, Oster A, Konra O, Rozen N. Toe-touch weight bearing: myth or reality? Orthopedics. 2010;33(10):729. doi:10.3928/01477447-20100826-02 (PMID 20954673)
Ruiz FK, Fu MC, Bohl DD, Hustedt JW, Baumgaertner MR, Leslie MP, Grauer JN. Patient compliance with postoperative lower extremity touch-down weight-bearing orders at a level I academic trauma center. Orthopedics. 2014;37(6):e552–e556. doi:10.3928/01477447-20140528-55 (PMID 24972436)
Kammerlander C, Pfeufer D, Lisitano LA, Mehaffey S, Böcker W, Neuerburg C. Inability of older adult patients with hip fracture to maintain postoperative weight-bearing restrictions. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, American Volume. 2018;100(11):936–941. doi:10.2106/JBJS.17.01222 (PMID 29870444)
Pfeufer D, Zeller A, Mehaffey S, Böcker W, Kammerlander C, Neuerburg C. Weight-bearing restrictions reduce postoperative mobility in elderly hip fracture patients. Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery. 2019;139(9):1253–1259. doi:10.1007/s00402-019-03193-9 (PMID 31053870)
Ottesen TD, McLynn RP, Galivanche AR, et al. Increased complications in geriatric patients with a fracture of the hip whose postoperative weight-bearing is restricted: an analysis of 4918 patients. The Bone & Joint Journal. 2018;100-B(10):1377–1384. doi:10.1302/0301-620X.100B10.BJJ-2018-0489.R1 (PMID 30295535)
Wall BT, Dirks ML, Snijders T, Senden JMG, Dolmans J, van Loon LJC. Substantial skeletal muscle loss occurs during only 5 days of disuse. Acta Physiologica. 2014;210(3):600–611. doi:10.1111/apha.12190 (PMID 24168489)
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. How to use crutches, canes, and walkers. OrthoInfo. orthoinfo.org/en/recovery/how-to-use-crutches-canes-and-walkers. Checked October 9, 2026.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About venous thromboembolism (blood clots). March 5, 2025. cdc.gov/blood-clots/about. Checked October 9, 2026.

Medical disclaimer. This page is for general educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider about your individual situation. Follow the weight-bearing instruction given by your own surgical team.

WBAT Medical Abbreviation: Weight-Bearing as Tolerated, TTWB, NWB and PWB