Effects of joint effusion on proprioception in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a single-blind, randomized controlled clinical trial

Cho, Y.R.; Hong, B.Y.; Lim, S.H.; Kim, H.W.; Ko, Y.J.; Im, S.A.; Lee, J.I.

doi:10.1016/j.joca.2010.10.013

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Volume 19, Issue 1 , Pages 22-28, January 2011

Effects of joint effusion on proprioception in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a single-blind, randomized controlled clinical trial

Y.R. Cho
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
B.Y. Hong
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
S.H. Lim
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
H.W. Kim
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Y.J. Ko
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
S.A. Im
- Department of Radiology, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
J.I. Lee
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Jong In Lee, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 505 Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137-701, Republic of Korea. Tel: 82-2-2258-6283; Fax: 82-2-2258-2825.

Received 26 March 2010; accepted 17 October 2010. published online 22 November 2010.

Summary

Objective

To assess the effects of joint effusion on proprioceptive status in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Design

A single-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial in 40 female subjects aged 50 years and over with painful knee OA. All subjects were randomly assigned to either the control or experimental group. A volume of 20mL of normal saline was injected into the knee joint cavity of subjects in the experimental group under ultrasonographic guidance. Proprioceptive acuity was assessed by active repositioning of the lower limb using an electrogoniometer to measure knee joint position sense (JPS) under both non-weight-bearing (NWB) and weight-bearing (WB) conditions twice, with a 20-min rest interval. The experimental group performed the task twice (Test 1 and Test 2) before and within 5min after joint infusion. The control group also performed Test 1 and Test 2 without joint infusion. The outcome of interest was the absolute angular error (AAE), ignoring the direction of the error, between the randomized target angle and the patient’s reproduced angle of JPS values.

Results

Compared with the control group, JPS was significantly compromised in the experimental group in the NWB test after joint infusion (P=0.025). However, no significant differences in the angular error were observed between Test 1 and Test 2 in the control group for the NWB or WB test or in the experimental group for the WB test after infusion (P>0.05).