Journal of orthopaedic research : official publication of the Orthopaedic Research Society
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Changes in knee adduction moment, pain, and functionality with a variable-stiffness walking shoe after 6 months.
This study tested the effects of variable-stiffness shoes on knee adduction moment, pain, and function in subjects with symptoms of medial compartment knee osteoarthritis over 6 months. Patients were randomly and blindly assigned to a variable-stiffness intervention or constant-stiffness control shoe. The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) score served as the primary outcome measure. ⋯ The constant-stiffness control shoe increased the peak knee adduction moment (+6.3% vs. personal, p = 0.004) in the 26 control subjects at 6 months. The results of this study showed that wearing the variable-stiffness shoe lowered the adduction moment, reduced pain, and improved functionality after 6 months of wear. The lower adduction moment associated with wearing this shoe may slow the rate of progression of osteoarthritis after long-term use.
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Achilles tendon ruptures are treated with an initial period of immobilization, which obstructs the healing process partly by a reduction of blood circulation. Intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) has been proposed to enhance tendon repair by stimulation of blood flow. We hypothesized that daily IPC treatment can counteract the deficits caused by 2 weeks of immobilization post tendon rupture. ⋯ Immobilization significantly reduced maximum force, energy uptake, stiffness, tendon length, transverse area, stress, organized collagen diameter and collagen III-LI occurrence by respectively 80, 75, 77, 22, 47, 65, 49, and 83% compared to free mobilization. IPC treatment improved maximum force 65%, energy 168%, organized collagen diameter 50%, tendon length 25%, and collagen III-LI occurrence 150% compared to immobilization only. The results confirm that immobilization impairs healing after tendon rupture and furthermore demonstrate that IPC-treatment can enhance proliferative tendon repair by counteracting biomechanical and morphological deficits caused by immobilization.