Living with Knee Osteoarthritis: The Positive Impact of Reducing the Knee Torque Induced When Sleeping Supine; A Randomised Clinical Trial

When lying supine, due to the reaction force from mattress acting mostly through heel, an external knee-extension joint-torque is induced that keeps knee fully extended. This torque becomes zero if feet are hung over end of support. study investigated, in patients with knee-osteoarthritis (knee-OA) who routinely sleep whether a change such sleeping position would ameliorate pain and associated physical problems they suffer. Patients were recruited (General-Practitioners Centre, UK) 9-month period; those eligible (51/70) randomly allocated intervention (65% female; age 71.5 [11.3] yrs; BMI, 29.20 [5.54] kg/m2; knee-OA severity, 20 mild–mod/3 severe) or control group (63% age, 68.3 [9.7] 28.69 [5.51] 17 mild–mod/2 severe). The primary outcome was improvements (0 [worst] 100 [best]) at 3 months rated Knee-Injury-and-Osteoarthritis-Outcome-Score questionnaire (KOOS). Secondary outcomes (0–100) other four KOOS-subscales. There no differences between groups KOOS baseline, there changes months. Relative baseline values Knee-Pain (50.1), Symptoms (52.5), Activities-of-Daily-Living (53.8) Quality-of-Life (31.5), all seen improve (by 11.9 12.9); however, when comparing controls, only subscale (which improved by 12.2) statistically significant. Findings indicate for (to prevent being pushed into/held full extension) can help