Effectiveness of kinesiotape over knee joint in knee osteoarthritis patients.

Abstract

Purpose: To identify the effectiveness of kinesiotape over knee joint in knee osteoarthritis patients. Hypotheses: Kinesiotape along with conventional physiotherapy is more effective than only conventional physiotherapy for the treatment of osteoarthritis of knee joint. Null hypotheses: Kinesiotape along with conventional physiotherapy is not more effective than only conventional physiotherapy for the treatment of osteoarthritis of knee joint. Objectives: To find out the effectiveness of kinesiotape over knee joint in knee osteoarthritis patients in terms of physical disability, pain intensity, ROM and muscle power. Methodology: The study is a single blind Randomized Control Trail (RCT). The patients were selected from the outpatient musculoskeletal unit and 20 patients with OA of knee were randomly selected and then 10 patients with OA of knee were randomly assigned to experimental group and the other 10 patients were selected to the control group for this RCT study. The study has been conducted at musculoskeletal department of CRP, Savar. Outcome measurement tools: Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) was used to measure the physical disability of the participants, Numerical pain rating scale (NPRS) was used to measure pain ,Goniometer was used to measure range of motion and manual muscle testing scale was used to measure muscle power. Analysis of data: Inferential statistics such as Mann-Whitney U test and Wilcoxon test was done using SPSS version 20. Results: From this research it was observed that physical disability score and pain intensity were decreased both in experimental and control group. In WOMAC score, only lying in bed variable (U=19, p=0.007) was significant in experimental group. No significant effect was found in range of motion of both in experimental and control group. Improvement of muscle power was not significant in manual muscle testing scale in experimental group. Conclusions: The research showed that the effectiveness of kinesiotape over knee joint along with conventional physiotherapy is not more effective than only conventional physiotherapy in knee osteoarthritis patients. Key words: Kinesiotape, Knee joint, Osteoarthritis.