Purpose: We measured the vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) of the hip, knee, and ankle joints during normal gait in normal patients, adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) patients with a Cobb angle <40° and in AIS patients with spinal fusion. We aimed to investigate whether vGRF in the aforementioned joints is altered in these three groups of patients.
Overview of Literature: vGRF of the lower limb joints may be altered in these groups of patients. Although it is known that excessive force in the joints may induce early arthritis, there is limited relevant information in the literatures.
Methods: We measured vGRF of the hip, knee, and ankle joints during heel strike, early stance, mid stance, and toe-off phases in normal subjects (group 1, n=14), AIS patients with Cobb angle <40° (group 2, n=14), and AIS patients with spinal fusion (group 3, n=13) using a gait analysis platform. Fifteen auto-reflective tracking markers were attached to standard anatomical landmarks in both the lower limbs. The captured motion images were used to define the orientations of the body segments and force exerted on the force plate using computer software. Statistical analysis was performed using independent t-test and analysis of variance to examine differences between the right and left sides as well as those among the different subject groups.
Results: The measurements during the four gait phases in all the groups did not show any significant difference (p>0.05). In addition, no significant difference was found in the vGRF measurements of all the joints among the three groups (p>0.05).
Conclusions: A Cobb angle <40° and spinal fusion did not significantly create imbalance or alter vGRF of the lower limb joints in AIS patients.
Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study, including 48 patients from a single institution who underwent MUA for stiffness, separated into objective and subjective knee stiffness. Patients with subjective knee stiffness who underwent MUA had failed conservative management. ROM, Oxford Knee Scores (OKS), Knee Society Scores (KSS) and Short Form 36 (SF36) scores were compared at two years post MUA.
Results: The demographics of the two patient groups were similar. The time interval between index TKA and MUA was higher in the subjective knee stiffness group. Pre-MUA OKS, KS Function Score, KSS and SF36 scores were similar in both patient subgroups. There was no significant difference in the OKS, KSS or SF36 at two year follow-up. The proportion of patients in each group who achieved the Minimum Clinically Important Difference (MCID) improvement in the scores was also similar.
Conclusions: Patients with subjective knee stiffness can achieve similar functional outcome improvements in Oxford and Knee Society Scores with MUA at two years follow-up.