Exercise Therapy On Pain, Joint Range Of Motion And Arthritis Effusion KOA Patients

BACKGROUND: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a common and frequently occurring disease in middle-aged and elderly people, with local pain, deformation and joint dysfunction as the main clinical manifestations. PURPOSE: To explore the effect of exercise therapy on pain, joint range of motion and arthritis effusion in patients with knee osteoarthritis. METHODS: The included KOA patients were randomly divided into a control group (CG) and an experimental group (EG) with 20 cases in each. The experimental group was given exercise therapy in addition to taking drugs. Exercise therapy mainly includes: (1) Muscle strength training: including isometric contraction training of the quadriceps femoris, resistance knee extension training of the quadriceps femoris, and resistance knee flexion training of the hamstrings; (2) Joint range of motion training: actively perform knee flexion and extension exercises in the supine position. Each joint must perform activities in the fullest range in all directions. The total treatment time of exercise therapy is 45 minutes (20 minutes for muscle strength training and 25 minutes for range of motion training), once a day, five times a week, for 4 weeks. After intervention, VAS score, WOMAC score and inflammatory factors were tested (interleukin-6, interleukin-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein). RESULTS: After intervention, the VAS score (P = 0.004) and WOMAC (P = 0.006,P = 0.015,P < 0.001) score of the EG were significantly lower than those of the CG. Compared with the CG, the joint effusion volume in the EG decreased more significantly (P < 0.001), and the decreases of IL-6(P < 0.001), IL-1β(P < 0.001), TNF-α (P < 0.001) and hs-CRP (P < 0.001) in the joint fluid of the EG were significantly better than those of the CG. CONCLUSION: Exercise therapy for knee osteoarthritis can reduce pain, improve joint function, reduce joint effusion volume, and reduce the content of inflammatory factors in joint fluid.