Effects of backward gait training on Excursions of Lower Limb Joints of patients with medial knee Osteoarthritis

 Aims and background: The aim of this study was to investigate effects of backward gait training on Excursions of Lower Limb Joints in man Patients with medial knee Osteoarthritis. Materials and methods: The subjects were 21 healthy men and 42 male patients with knee osteoarthritis who were divided into experimental and control groups according to the Kellgren and Lawrence radiologic scale and the visual analogue scale. The experimental group performed backward gait training for six weeks. A Vicon (130 Hz) motion analysis system with four T-Series cameras were used to measure parameters by Vicon Nexus 1.8.5, Polygon 4.1.2 software. Findings: There were no significant differences in all kinematics parameters (joint angles) between the healthy and KOA groups (P>0.05). There were significant differences observed between groups of patients and healthy subjects (patients & health) for knee flexion/extension excursion (P=0.014, P=0.047), hip Internal/external rotation excursion (P=0.014, P=0.047) and the visual analogue scale(P=0.00, P=0.00) Significant influence of exercise on increasing the rate of anterior/posterior pelvic tilt the experimental group compared with control groups (P=0.028, P=0.026). There were significant differences observed between groups of control and intervention for the visual analogue scale. Conclusion: Some of the observed changes in kinematics parameters are due to effects of compensatory mechanisms, and some of them might be considered as the severity of the OA. In addition, OA in one joint had strong effects on other joints. Backward gait training protocol had a significant effect on knee/ hip excursions and reduction of pain.