فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

. Introduction: Patients with Knee medial compartment osteoarthritis suffer from pain and stiffness. Pain reduces their function and life quality. One of the therapeutic methods is using unloader orthosis. This case report study aimed to evaluate effect of using a new unloader orthosis on score of pain, performance and life quality of patients with Knee medial compartment osteoarthritis. Methods and Material: Three women aged 60-70 years old and with moderate Knee medial compartment osteoarthritis were enrolled in the study based on Kellgren and Lawrence system for classification of osteoarthritis. The new unloader orthosis was produced in order to evaluate its efficacy on knee medial osteoarthritis based on the measurements of participants. The participants wore the new knee orthosis for six weeks. Before and after using the orthosis, the severity of pain was measured through visual analogue scale, and in order to measure life quality and assess physical activity, partciapnts filled out the SF-36 and WOMAC osteoarthritis index, respectively. Results: The mean BMI of the participants was 28.9 kg/m2. According to results in all the three partipants, VAS score decreased after six weeks of using the new orthosis. WOMAC questionnaire score in first, second and the third participant also reduced respectively up to 35.5%, 7.3%, and 35.4%, and the SF-36 questionnaire score increased as 21.1%, 1.9%, and 18.6%, respectively. Conclusions: The new knee unloader orthosis reduced pain and improved performance of participants with knee medial osteoarthritis. Therefore, this orthosis can be appropriate for patients with knee osteoarthritis. Keywords: knee osteoarthritis, pain, “knee unloader orthosis”, quality of life