Effects of Walking With a Cane on Frontal Plane Hip Joint Loading in Patients With Late-Stage Unilateral Hip Osteoarthritis.
Masayuki Tazawa, Hironori Arii, Yoko Ibe and 3 others
PMID 36123985WHAT IT FOUND
In 27 patients with late-stage unilateral hip OA, walking with a cane lowered pain during gait and reduced peak hip loading on the affected side.
The opposite hip may carry more load.
Key findings
01Walking with a T-cane on the unaffected side reduced peak vertical ground reaction force on the affected side from 10.15 to 9.20 N/kg, a 10% reduction, and reduced peak hip adduction moment from 0.76 to 0.57 Nm/kg, a 25% reduction.
02Hip pain during walking was lower with the cane: 42.1 versus 26.4 on a 0-to-100 scale.
03The total hip adduction moment over stance on the affected side fell from 50.58 to 42.78 Nm.s/kg, a 15% reduction, while the total vertical force over stance did not differ.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only 27 patients were analysed from 60 enrolled, and all had severe unilateral hip OA scheduled for hip replacement, so the findings may not apply to milder, bilateral, or non-surgical hip OA. Participants had mixed cane experience, and almost all had never been taught correct use, so the effect may depend on training. The outcomes were short-term laboratory measures of walking forces and pain during gait, not long-term function, falls, joint progression, or surgery timing. The peak force and moment values came from the maximum during stance, but waveform shapes varied between patients, so peaks may not represent the same part of gait for everyone. The walking conditions were tested in a fixed order, with no cane first and cane second.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that cane use will slow hip OA or improve long-term function. The study measured short-term walking forces and pain in 27 patients before surgery, not disease progression.