A Study of Immediate Effects of Taping in Patients with Knee Osteo-arthritis

Osteoarthritis - or degenerative joint disease (DJD) - is a common rheumatological disorder. In view of limited cure of the disease, management of symptoms is the mainstay of treatment which aims at reducing pain and limiting functional impairments. Knee taping is believed to relieve pain by improving alignment of the patello-femoral joint and/or unloading inflamed soft tissues.

Aims & Objectives: To study the immediate effects of taping on pain in patients with osteoarthritis of the knees by assessing the VAS score on four activities of daily living: walking, squatting, ascending and descending stairs and on functional disability tests like walking speed, Time Get Up and Go test and step test.

Study Design: Hospital based Longitudinal Study

Subjects:

Inclusion criteria: Patients with unilateral or bilateral knee pain, clinically and radiologically diagnosed grade 1 and grade 2 osteoarthritis, (according to Kellgren and Lawrence classification) as patello-femoral and/or tibio-femoral osteoarthritis of knees were included. Exclusion criteria: Knee instability, acute stage osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid and other knee arthritis.

Study Factors:

Intervention: Patellar Taping by McConnell technique and Tibio-femoral taping by Mulligan Technique.

Post taping Pain measurement by VAS Scale, Observed Disability Measures like TUG (Timed Get Up and Go test), Walking speed, and Step test.

Sixty subjects enrolled with mean age of 57.17 years. Pain relief using VAS scores on the 4 activities i.e. walking, squatting, ascending stairs and descending stairs, TUG scores, Step test scores and Walking Speed showed statistically significant improvements after taping in both unilateral and bilateral OA knee subjects.

Knee taping significantly improve pain and disability in individuals with osteoarthritis of the knees as an immediate effect.