Knee pain…the chance that you experience or will experience knee pain or know someone suffering with knee pain is above average. Knee pain caused
by osteoarthritis is a common condition around
the world. Pflugerville Wellness Center encourages our Pflugerville chiropractic
knee pain patients to exercise. We are well aware that we sound like a broken record on
exercise, but exercise remains ‘king’ when it comes to knee pain
care! And other new knee pain studies tout a few new
treatment methods to try, too.
OSTEOARTHRITIS
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a disease of degenerated cartilage or
wear and tear harm to cartilage giving rise to
disability and other health problems impacting over 500 million
adults globally. Hip OA and knee OA
are two of the most common types with knee OA being the most
common. The goal of treatment of OA is management and decline
of symptoms, not cure. Drug approaches include NSAIDs while
non-drug approaches incorporate exercise (walking), aerobic
exercise, weight loss, diet, hot/cold therapy, electrotherapy to improve
muscle strength and lessen 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 desirous
goals.
DESIRED RESULTS OF TREATMENT FOR KNEE OA
How do you determine if an intervention is successful to your pain? Your desired outcome
is the most important. For osteoarthritis, one of the major
diseases that disables us humans, walking for pleasure was documented
by data collected for the Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) to be
statistically significant for tackling 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 worthwhile. For patients
with osteoarthritis who underwent non-surgical treatments,
the amount of knee flexion they could perform after treatment was from
3.8 to 6.4 degrees. Other pertinent information researchers found
from the 72 studies they analyzed was that an increase
in flexion was associated with 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 grown in availability
alongside traditional exercise for knee OA pain. A randomized control trial contrasted
three treatment combinations 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 after
treatments, the PRP didn’t change pain in
mild-to-mode knee OA patients weighed against 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 prove to be superior to
exercise alone either. The researchers ended their paper with
the statement that exercise alone was recommended to decrease pain
and enhance function. (4) Certainly, more studies will continue
to document the impact of such treatments as PRP.
CONTACT Pflugerville Wellness Center
Listen to this PODCAST
on Osteoarthritis of the Knee with Dr. Luigi Albano on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr.
Michael Johnson as he describes the
effectiveness of the gentle, adapted protocols of The Cox®
Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating the osteoarthritic knee! A
helpful, relieving treatment approach to include
along with exercise!
Make your Pflugerville chiropractic
appointment soon. From what we read, it seems like
exercise is still ‘king’ in dealing with osteoarthritis of
the knee. We can help you find the right exercises and even integrate
some distraction to help your knee.