In order to assign patients to specific treatment groups in an unbiased manner, randomization will occur prior to surgery. The assigned treatment codes for patients in each group will be generated by a computerized randomization program developed by the department of biostatistics, taking into account factors such age, sex and BMI. After the patient has met the entrance criteria, and given their full informed consent to participate in the study, they will be randomly assigned to one treatment group. Patient randomization will be performed during the clinic visit at which the surgery is scheduled, which typically occurs 1-3 days prior to surgery. The patients enrolled in the functional recovery measurement subset will be a consecutive series of the randomly assigned patients until 20 patients are assigned in each of the two study arms.