Knee pain…the probability that you experience or will experience knee pain or know someone suffering with knee pain is above average. Knee pain due to osteoarthritis is a familiar condition around
the world. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office encourages our Groton chiropractic
knee pain patients to exercise. We are well aware that we sound like a broken record when it comes to
exercise, but exercise is still ‘king’ when it comes to knee pain
care! And other new knee pain research touts a few new
treatment approaches to try, too.
OSTEOARTHRITIS
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease of degenerated cartilage or
wear and tear damage to cartilage giving rise to
disability and other health problems impacting over 500 million
adults around the world. Hip OA and knee OA
are the leading types with knee OA being the most
common. The goal of treatment of OA is management and decrease
of symptoms, not cure. Drug approaches consist of NSAIDs while
non-drug approaches incorporate exercise (walking), aerobic
exercise, weight loss, diet, hot/cold therapy, electrotherapy to enhance
muscle strength and decrease joint pain. Surgery
(arthroscopy and joint replacement therapy) was explained to be
a last treatment option. The authors of this paper emphasized
that precautions to keep joints healthy and disease-free were advisable
and essential. (1) Those are wished for
goals.
DESIRED RESULTS OF TREATMENT FOR KNEE OA
How do you determine if an intervention is of
value to your pain? Your desired outcome
is the most important. For osteoarthritis, one of the bigger
diseases that hinders us humans, walking for pleasure was documented
by data collected for the Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) to be
statistically significant for managing knee
osteoarthritis at the genetic level. (2) Today’s researchers are also working to define just what “minimal clinically important
change” is, what the minimum improvement a patient like you would perceive or say made going
through the treatment was worth it. For patients
with osteoarthritis who went through non-surgical treatments,
the amount of knee flexion they could perform after treatment was from
3.8 to 6.4 degrees. Other interesting information researchers uncovered
from the 72 studies they analyzed was that a rise
in flexion was linked to decreased pain
and improved function. (3) These are positive findings!
…AND WHAT ABOUT PLASMA-RICH PLATELET THERAPY?
In the non-surgical realm of treatment for knee
osteoarthritis, platelet rich plasma (PRP)
injection has become more available
alongside traditional exercise for knee OA pain. A randomized control trial compared
three treatment combos PRP injection alone (three weekly
injections), exercise alone (6 weeks program/12 sessions of strengthening and
functional exercise), and PRP with exercise. At 24 weeks post
treatments, the PRP did not impact pain in
mild-to-mode knee OA patients compared to exercise alone.
Actually, the exercise alone group outcomes were
clinically superior for function and health related quality of life. Even
though the PRP increased cost to the combined treatment, it didn’t show itself to be superior to
exercise alone either. The researchers ended their paper with
the statement that exercise alone was recommended to decrease pain
and improve function. (4) Certainly, more studies will continue
to reveal the efficacy of such treatments as PRP.
CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
Listen to this PODCAST
on Osteoarthritis of the Knee with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson as he shares the
effective gentle, adapted protocols of The Cox®
Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating the osteoarthritic knee! A
beneficial, relieving treatment approach to incorporate with exercise!
Schedule your Groton chiropractic
appointment now. From what we read, it looks like
exercise is still ‘king’ in dealing with osteoarthritis of
the knee. We can help you find the right exercises and even incorporate
some distraction to help the knee.