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Abstract. Objective. This research is a step put forth for the further progression in this field, to find out the effectiveness of hip abductor muscles strengthening exercises along with the quadriceps exercises, in reducing knee pain and improving the functional performance of knee joint in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Material and Method. 30 subjects with knee osteoarthritis were divided into two groups randomly. Group A was provided with general quadriceps strengthening exercises along with short wave diathermy. While Group B was provided with quadriceps strengthening and hip abductors strengthening exercises in conjunction with SWD. Then both the groups were tested by using the following four scales: 11 Point Numeric Rating Scale, WOMAC Scale, Step Test and Timed Up and Go Test. Results. After providing the physiotherapy management to the patients both the groups showed significant improvement in all the four scales, 11 Point Numeric Rating Scale, WOMAC Scale, Step test and Timed Up and Go Test. But the group with hip abductor strengthening showed greater improvement than the other group.
Key words: strengthening exercises, musculoskeletal pain, physical disability.
Introduction
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic localized joint disease and a leading cause of musculoskeletal pain and disability. Osteoarthritis disease process involves the whole joint including cartilage bone ligament and muscle with changes such as joint space narrowing, bony osteophytes and sclerosis on X-ray (1).
Osteoarthritis is the most common disease of joints in adults around the world. About one-third of all adults have radiological signs of osteoarthritis, although clinically significant osteoarthritis of the knee, hand, or hip in only 8.9% of the adult population. Knee osteoarthritis is the most common type (6% of all adults). The likelihood of developing osteoarthritis increases with age. The prevalence of osteoarthritis of the knee is higher among 70- to 74-year-old, rising as high as 40% (2).
In addition to age, a number of other risk factors have been identified, including major joint trauma, repetitive stress, overload of the joint, obesity, female gender, genetic factors, congenital/developmental defects, quadriceps weakness, inflammatory joint disease and several metabolic/endocrine disorders (3).
The quadriceps weakness, commonly associated with osteoarthritis of the knee, is widely believed to result from disuse atrophy secondary to pain in the involved joint. However, quadriceps weakness may be an etiologic...