Effect of Hip Abductor Strengthening Exercises in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Controlled Trial 

(note: we suggest reading the article in full if available to you, for specific parameters, etc., prior to reading the main takeaways!)

• 10 week study was looking into patients with knee osteoarthritis who had q varus knee angle
• Varus angle will compress the medial joint compartment and stretch the lateral joint structures, leading to quicker progression of OA disease progression, greater pain and decreased function
• Investigated the effect of hip abductor exercises for patients who had medial compartment knee OA
• Separated into 2 groups: participants all >50y/o, walking without assistive device, could flex knee >90° and had a varus angle of <10°
• Group 1: performed hip abductor strengthening exercises, combined with quadriceps strengthening exercises
• Group 2 (control group) : performed solely quadriceps strengthening exercises
• Methods of testing:
• All instructed by Physical Therapists and to pt’s to perform 2x daily, 3x per week
• Group 1:
• Performed Long Arc Quads (LAQ) with 10s. holds, 4 sets x 10 reps
• Performed sidelying clamshells with 10s. Holds, 4 sets x 10 reps
• Group 2:
• Performed only LAQ with same protocol
• How did they assess?
• Utilized Self-reported Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Scores (KOOS) upon follow up visits
• Follow up KOOS scale taken at weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 (score of 0-100, 0 representing extreme problems- 100 representing no problems)
• Pain
• Symptoms
• ADL
• Function in sports/recreation
• Knee related quality of life
• Results:
• 86% of participants completed the study
• All KOOS significantly improved in both groups following 10 weeks of treatment, but no significant difference between weeks 2-10
• The effects specifically for pain, function in daily living, and quality of life were 2 weeks faster in Group 1 (noted at week 2 in hip abductor group and at week 4 in the control group)
• The effects specifically for symptoms of the knee were 4 weeks faster in Group 1 (noted at week 2 in the hip abductor group and at week 6 in the control group)
• The control group did recover quickly in the sport/recreation category (noted at week 8 in the control group and week 10 in the hip abductor group-(let's follow up with why this might be in a weekly discussion!)
• In conclusion, both groups did show improvement; however, it seems that a combination of both hip abductor exercises + quadriceps strengthening exercises can lead to quicker response in pain, symptoms, functions in daily living and quality of life by  2-4 weeks, which can transpire into an effective benefit for patients

Resource:

Yuenyongviwat, V., Duangmanee, S., Iamthanaporn, K. et al. Effect of hip abductor strengthening exercises in knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Musculoskelet Disord 21, 284 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-020-03316-z.

https://bmcmusculoskeletdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12891-020-03316-z#citeas