Patients with Symptomatic Hip Osteoarthritis Have Altered Kinematics during Stair Ambulation.
Tijana Popovic, Michael A Samaan, Thomas M Link and 2 others
PMID 32383300WHAT IT FOUND
People with symptomatic hip osteoarthritis walk up and down stairs differently than healthy controls.
They turn their hips inward and their knees and ankles outward. These small changes may help avoid pain, but their long-term effect on joint health is unknown.
Key findings
01During stair ascent, people with hip OA had lower peak hip external rotation, lower peak hip abduction, higher peak hip internal rotation, and higher peak knee and ankle external rotation compared to controls.
02During stair descent, people with hip OA had higher peak knee external rotation, higher peak knee extension, higher peak ankle external rotation, and higher peak ankle plantar flexion compared to controls.
03The clinical significance of the observed kinematic differences is unknown, as some differences were small and similar to reproducibility error.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The cross-sectional design cannot determine if the kinematic changes cause hip OA or result from it. Participants with HOOS scores between 80 and 90 were excluded, limiting generalizability to those with moderate symptoms. Soft tissue artifacts and estimation errors in joint centers may affect transverse plane data. Hip muscle strength and electromyography were not assessed, so the link between weakness and kinematics is speculative. The clinical significance of the small kinematic differences is unknown.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these kinematic differences are the cause of hip OA or that correcting them will improve outcomes. The study is cross-sectional, so causation cannot be inferred, and the clinical significance of the small angular differences is unknown.