The role of joint afferents in sensory processing in osteoarthritic knees

Objective. To test the role of joint receptors for proprioception in patien ts with bilateral knee osteoarthritis (OA) and patients who had undergone u nilateral total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Methods. Nine patients were tested bilaterally with a conventional movement detection paradigm that evaluated conscious detection perception and a new ly developed hunting paradigm that measured maximal sensory performance (hu nting perception). Results. For detection perception, patients exhibited a slightly lower thre shold on the arthritic side than on their TKA side. For hunting perception, the patients showed threshold values that were an order of magnitude small er than for the conventional paradigm in both knees. Performance was much b etter on prosthetic knees than on OA knees. Conclusion. The joint receptors of OA knees might have an adverse effect on the maximal proprioceptive performance, being important for the normal ref lexive knee joint functions. These deficits may be overcome by joint recept or removal during knee replacement.