Kinematic analysis of movement control strategies in patients presenting knee arthritis

Introduction The aim of this work was to study movement control strategies in patients w ith knee arthritis. These strategies were expected to be different from hea lthy subjects because of deficiences due to knee arthritis (i.e, pain, alte red proprioception), Method A kinetic and kinematic analysis was performed in a population of 10 patien ts with unilateral knee arthritis and in 11 age-matched control subjects, u sing an ELITE(TM) system and two AMTI(TM) force-plates, The different phase s of a side step were studied. Results The timing of the movement was different in the two populations. The postur al phase was longer and the monopodal phase was shorter in knee arthritis p atients when the affected leg was the supporting one than when the sound le g was supporting,Total step duration and landing-stabilization phase durati on were longer in knee arthritis patients than in healthy subjects. Conclusion This movement analysis method enables to determine and to quantify differen ces between knee arthritis patients and control subjects. Clinical examinat ion cannot identify these differences. Movement analysis methods bring up a dditional information to usual clinical evaluation scales and could be used for evaluation of the results of total knee arthroplasty.