Effect of Local Quadriceps Vibration on the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis Symptoms

Recently، vibration has been used widely as a rehabilitation intervention for neuro-musculo-skeletal disorders. As، the knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a common joint disorder among the people، this study was designed to investigate the effect of quadriceps local vibration on the symptoms of knee OA in the female patients.

This randomised clinical trial was done on 34 female patients with unilateral or bilateral tibiofemoral OA (62 knee)، who were randomly assigned to one of the vibration groups: (17 patients with 31 affected knee) or control (17 patients with 31 affected knee). The subjects in the control group received 15 sessions (5 weeks) conventional physiotherapy protocol، while the vibration group received the same conventional physiotherapy protocol plus local vibration training protocol over the quadriceps muscle of affected knee. Maximum torque of concentric contraction of quadriceps muscle at 30، 60 and 90 degree/sec، pain pressure threshold (PPT)، active knee flexion range of motion (ROM) and the amount of knee effusion were measured before and after intervention and also after 4 weeks of follow-up period.

After intervention، significant increase in the knee flexion ROM in the dominant lower limb (p=0. 016) and reduced pain perception in the right leg (p=0. 023) and in the left leg (p=0. 019) were seen in vibration group، compared to control group، while no significant difference was found between the experimental and control groups in term of maximum torque of quadriceps and knee effusion.

Local vibration over the quadriceps muscle may improve knee joint ROM and reduce pain in patients with knee OA، while، no beneficial effect was found on other knee OA symptoms such muscle weakness and knee effusion.