The Biomechanical and Functional Status of Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis - A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Knee deformity associated with osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common complications reported to orthopaedic surgeons. Genu valgum and genu varum are the most commonly occurring deformities due to knee osteoarthritis. When there is progression in degeneration due to osteoarthritis, deformities tend to worsen and will eventually lead to reduction in cadence rate, hindfoot angle, range of motion in both hip and knee. Thus, this study is conducted to analyze these parameters like cadence, hindfoot angle, hip internal flexion, knee flexion, WOMAC scale and VAS pain rating scale between the groups of individuals with genu valgum and genu varum deformity. Methodology: A convenient division was made of a total of 80 knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients into two groups by measuring their medial tibiofemoral angle, namely genu valgum and genu varum. The patients were evaluated for various parameters including gait cadence, reduced knee flexion, hip internal rotation, hind foot angle, WOMAC scale, and VAS pain scale. The discrepancies in these parameters were analyzed between the genu valgum and genu varum groups. This study design represents a cross-sectional approach. Results: The Independent t-test was used to examine the results among the groups, with a significance level set at p ≤ 0.05. Considerable statistical changes were observed in cadence, hindfoot angle, knee flexion ROM, and hip internal rotation ROM, with corresponding p-values of 0.0006, 0.049, 0.002, and 0.01, respectively. However, no significant differences were found in the case of the WOMAC scale and VAS pain rating scale between the groups with genu valgum and genu varum deformities, as their p-values were considerably higher than the significance level (0.169, 0.948). Conclusion: The objective of the study was to gain insight into the biomechanical and functional condition of individuals suffering from knee osteoarthritis. Substantial differences were observed between the groups regarding cadence, hindfoot angle, knee flexion range of motion (ROM), and hip internal rotation ROM. However, when evaluating the WOMAC scale and VAS pain rating scale, both groups exhibited nearly identical values, indicating a lack of statistical significance in these outcome measures. Keywords: Knee osteoarthritis, genu valgum, genu varum, tibiofemoral angle, cadence, hindfoot angle, knee flexion ROM, hip internal rotation ROM, WOMAC scale, VAS scale.