Effects of severity of degeneration on gait patterns in patients with medial knee osteoarthritis

This study tested the hypothesis that patients with mild and severe medial knee osteoarthritis (OA) adopt different compensatory gait patterns to unload the deseased knee, in not only the frontal plane but also the sagittal plane. Fifteen patients with mild and 15 with severe bilateral medial knee OA, and 15 normal controls walked while the kinematic and kinetic data were measured. Compared to the normal group, both OA groups had significantly greater pelvic anterior tilt, swing-pelvis list, smaller standing knee abduction, as well as smaller standing hip flexor and knee extensor moments during stance. The severe group also had greater hip abduction, knee extension and ankle plantarflexion. The mild group successfully reduced the extensor moment and maintained normal abductor moment at the diseased knee mainly through listing and anterior tilting the pelvis. With extra compensatory changes at other joints and increased hip abductor moment, the severe group successfully reduced the knee extensor moment but failed to reduce the abductor moment. These results suggest that, apart from training of the knee muscles, training of the hip muscles and pelvic control are essential in the rehabilitative intervention of patients with knee OA, especially for more severe patients.