Influence of treatment with a hydrolyzed collagen formulation on the movements of the human knee with early-stage gonarthrosis

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of treatment with a hydrolyzed collagen formulation on patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis (also called gonarthrosis) in the second stage, on the improvement of their biomechanical gait behavior, on the amplitude of knee movements. Sixteen patients affected by gonarthrosis in the second stage were selected. For experimental biomechanical measurements, the BIOMETRICS system was used for the acquisition and processing of experimental data, based on wearable sensors of the electrogoniometer type that can measure joint movements in two perpendicular planes. The measurements were performed in three stages: one day before the treatment, after 3 months of treatment and after 6 months of treatment with hydrolyzed collagen formulation. A comparison between the medium cycles corresponding to the three stages of the experimental tests is presented, where an increase in the amplitude of the flexion-extension angle can be observed with an increase in the administration period. The maximum values of the mean knee flexion-extension angle for the group of patients increased by approximately 5.3° (10.6 %) after 3 months of medication administration, compared to the initial phase of the experiment, while after 6 months, an increase of approximately 8° (14 %) compared to the first stage and of approximately 2.830 (5,3%) compared to the second stage was registered. The results showed an improvement in joint movement in all patients included in the study.