Pain Function and QOL Undergoing Whole-Body Vibration and Exercise in End-Stage Knee Osteoarthritis

Chinese University of Hong Kong517 enrolled

Overview

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a chronic progressive disease that imparts substantial socioeconomic burden to society and healthcare systems. The prevalence of KOA has dramatically risen in recent decades due to consistent increases in life expectancy, and demand for joint replacement continues to rise. Total knee replacement is indicated for end-stage KOA, as it is very effective in terms of pain relief, improvement of function, and quality of life. However, the investigators will be facing an unsustainable joint replacement burden, with significant healthcare budget and health workforce implications. To alleviate this problem, different strategies including reinforce the importance of education and exercise are included; as previous studies showed that less than 40% of patients with KOA received non-pharmacological treatment, indicating that the uptake of evidence-based guidelines in clinical practice and rehabilitation is still suboptimal. Several literatures revealed that quadriceps and hamstrings strength exercise could effectively reduce pain. It has widely accepted that patients with end stage KOA will eventually pursue total knee replacement as the only viable option, and exercise has low efficacy in reduction of pain and disability in this group of patients. So, the investigators would like to know whether exercise therapy can help severe KOA patients

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

517

Conditions

Knee Osteoarthritis

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Numerical pain rating scale

Pain assessment. Minimum value = 0, Maximum value = 10; the higher the score the worse the pain level

Time frame: Baseline, 8 weeks

Range of motion (ROM) of the diseased knee

Measure the angle of knee bending from straight (0 degree) to fully bended (180 degrees)

Time frame: Baseline, 8 weeks

Gait analysis

Measure the movement of legs from point A to B, measure the distance in cm between steps walking on a flat surface

Time frame: Baseline, 8 weeks

Knee Society Score

Score from 0 to 100. Lower scores being indicative of worse knee conditions and higher scores being indicative of better knee conditions.

Time frame: Baseline, 8 weeks

Knee Society Functional Assessment

Score from 0 to 100. Lower scores being indicative of worse knee conditions and higher scores being indicative of better knee conditions.

Time frame: Baseline, 8 weeks