Quadriceps Exercise to Relieve Knee Osteoarthritis-Related Pain

HealthDay News — A quadriceps isometric contraction exercise method is effective for relieving pain in knee osteoarthritis (OA), according to a study published in the International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases.¹

Lanfeng Huang, from the Second Hospital of Jilin University in Changchun, China, and colleagues enrolled 250 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of knee OA and randomized them to an exercise treatment test group (128 patients) and a traditional treatment control group (122 patients). The test group used quadriceps isometric contraction exercise, while the control group used local physical therapy and oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

The researchers found that the test group had significant relief in pain 1 month after treatment in visual analogue scale scoring and in the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index questionnaire (P <.05); the control group had minimal relief. There was minimal joint function improvement in the test group at 1 month (P >.05), while significant improvement was noted in the control group (P <.05). In the test vs the control group, pain relief and knee joint function were more improved at 3 months after treatment (P <.05).

“Through our short-term observation, joint pain was effectively relieved and knee joint function was improved with systematic quadriceps isometric contraction exercise,” the authors write.

Reference

1. Huang L, Guo B, Xu F, Zhao J. Effects of quadriceps functional exercise with isometric contraction in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. Int J Rheum Dis. 2017. doi: 10.1111/1756-185X.13082