A
biomechanical analysis of trunk and pelvis motion during gait in subjects with
knee osteoarthritis compared to control subjects.
Linley H., Sled E., Culham E., Deluzio K.
Clinical Biomechanics, 2010; 25, 1003 – 1010.
Knee adduction moment, which is related to
joint loading, has been reported to be reduced in subjects who tend to lean
their trunk over the stance extremity during walking gait. Research has shown
that adduction moment might be a good representative of knee OA progression.
This led to an interest in studying trunk lean as a possible mechanism of
reducing knee adduction moment and therefore knee medial compartment loading in
patients with knee OA. Current findings however seem to be unclear. Linley et
al. decided to conduct this study to analyse frontal plane trunk and pelvis
biomechanics, as well as knee and hip frontal kinematics, in control and OA
subjects to determine whether knee OA subjects lean their trunk farther over
stance limb to reduce joint loading. 80 subjects (40 controls and 40 OA) were
involved in the study.
Results showed that knee and hip adduction
moments were significantly higher in subjects with knee OA compared to
controls. In regards to knee joint, this is in agreement in previous research,
while findings on hip joint seem to be contraindicatory. No significant
difference between groups has been found in pelvis and trunk biomechanics which
did not fully support author’s hypotheses that subjects with knee OA lean their
trunks farther over their stance limb. Nevertheless, principal component
analyses revealed altered gait patterns in both the thorax and the pelvis
throughout the stance cycle of gait in knee OA subjects. Finally, PCA found out
that participants with knee OA tended to use trunk and pelvis more than as a
single unit as opposed to controls.
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