Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of disability in comparatively elderly patient. Different modalities in physiotherapy have been shown to help improve clinical symptoms and functions of knee OA, unloading knee traction is among those non-invasive therapies which can be applied as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy to treat osteoarthritis the patients with OA knee. To evaluate the effectiveness of unloading traction on patients with knee osteoarthritis.

A randomized prospective study was carried out in the department of Physical medicine & rehabilitation, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh from January 2010 to June 2010. Patients with OA knee by American College of Rheumatology Criteria were selected. Two intervention groups were compared. Group A (40 patients) in these group patients to be treated with NSAID+Short wave diathermy+activities of daily living. Patients of group B were given (40 patients) knee unloading traction along with above treatment. The change between six weeks post therapeutic and baseline Western Ontaro and Mc Master Universities (WOMAC) subscale and scores were calculated. Patients were followed up weekly for six weeks and in each visit, patients were assessed for pain, stiffness and physical function by WOMAC index.

A total 80 patients with OA knee were included in this study. The mean age 49.72±3.5 years. Male to female ratio 1.35:1. Comparison of mean pretreatment and 6th week posttreatment WOMAC physical function subscale score in group A (6.85±0.92 vs. 2.15±0.92) showed significant improvement and in group B (6.45±1.13 vs. 1.15±0.92) which also shows significant improvement more than group A. The result was compared and Student t-test was done to see the level of significance. Method was found significant after treatment (P<0.0001).

Unloading knee traction in patients with OA knee is beneficial.