Effects of Hip Joint Mobilizations and Strength Training on Pain, Physical Function and Dynamic Balance in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Control Trial

Knee osteoarthritis has been ranked 11th highest contributor to non-fatal burdens in the world. Many research studies have discussed the relationship of hip muscle with knee joint stating that impaired hip strength can be a reason for knee pain. Furthermore, mobilization has been shown to be helpful in reducing pain, increasing range of motion and physical function in Osteoarthritis. Despite the evidence, there are very few studies that actually conducted clinical trials to test the effectiveness of mobilizations and strengthening of hip muscles in knee Osteoarthritis. Therefore our aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of hip joint mobilizations and strength training in knee osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of hip joint mobilizations and strengthening exercises, on pain, physical function and dynamic balance in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) using Visual analog scale, Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score and four square step test.

METHODOLOGY: A randomized control trial will be conducted on 66 subjects with knee osteoarthritis and age 50 years will be enrolled in this study after screening by referring consultants. This study will be carried out at Physiotherapy OPD of DUHS, Civil hospital Karachi and Rabia Moon Memorial Institute of Neurosciences Trust. Subjects will be assessed at baseline and after 18 sessions using Visual analog scale, Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score and square step test for pain, physical functioning and dynamic balance respectively. The subjects will be allocated into three groups through simple random sampling. Group A (joint mobilization group) will receive hip mobilization techniques, hip strengthening exercises along with the best available knee exercises while group B (hip muscles strengthening group) will receive hip-strengthening exercises with the best available knee exercises. Group C (knee strengthening group) will be receiving the best available knee treatment including exercises only. Patients will receive a total of 18 sessions, 5 treatment sessions per week for four successive weeks. The data will be entered and analyzed using SPPS version 21. Repeated mean one way ANOVA will be applied to measure VAS and KOOS scores within the group, for pairwise comparison between groups, Tukey's test will be applied. Chi-square will be applied for FSST scoring. A P-Value less than 0.5 will be considered significant.