Physiotherapy Effects on Pain while Walking in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative disease. The main symptom of patients with knee osteoarthritis is a degenerative and mechanics type of pain. Pain is very noticeable while walking in rugged terrain, during ascent and descent of stairs, when changing from sitting in standing position as well as staying in the sitting position for a long time. Many studies have shown that the strength of the quadriceps femoris muscle can affect gait, by improving or weakening it. Kinesio Tape is a physiotherapeutic technique, which reduces pain and increases muscular strength by irritating the skin receptors. The aim of this article was to verify if Kinesio Tape reduces pain while walking, in patients with knee osteoarthritis. 74 patients with primary knee osteoarthritis, aged 50-73 years, participated in this study. We observed the change of pain while walking for 10 meters at normal speed for each patient, before, a day after the application and three days after the application of Kinesio Tape on quadriceps femoris muscle, with the help of numerical pain rating scale - NRS. Our results indicated that there was a significant decrease of the pain while walking for 10 meters.Keywords: knee osteoarthritis, gait, Kinesio Tape, rehabilitation, numerical pain rating scale - NRS, 10-meter walking test.