REVIEW  MOTION ANALYSIS IN ORTHOPEDICS 

Minerva Orthopedics 2021 October;72(5):474-83

DOI: 10.23736/S2784-8469.21.04133-X

Copyright © 2021 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Motion analysis for studying gait modification as a biomechanical intervention for medial knee osteoarthritis

Jade HE, Markus A. WIMMER ✉

Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA

INTRODUCTION: Medial knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a complex disease. Gait modification is a developing intervention with potential to delay progression of medial knee OA. Motion analysis has been used to evaluate and develop gait modification. This review aimed to summarize the use of motion analysis in studying gait modification and identify areas of improvement of this intervention.
EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Medline was searched to find articles that studied gait modification using motion analysis for medial knee OA. Reported gait measures were carefully examined before synthesis of the narrative review.
EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS: Thirty articles met all predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Motion analysis was employed for outcome assessment of gait modification and provision of real-time augmented feedback. All studies considered the knee adduction moment as their primary outcome measure and completed their analyses by including other relevant gait measures. For provision of real-time feedback, kinematic measures were precise and specific to a modification, and kinetic measures permitted subjects to individualize their modifications. Individualized feedback gait retraining might be more effective on lowering the KAM but will require more investigations. An increasing number of wearable devices has become available in recent years making feedback facilitated gait modification translatable to environments outside of the gait laboratory.
CONCLUSIONS: Motion analysis is a powerful tool to assess outcome and to further develop feedback gait retraining for management of knee OA. The continued use of motion analysis and the availability of wearable technology will allow individualizing gait modification and translating gait retraining out of the laboratory into natural environments.

KEY WORDS: Knee; Osteoarthritis; Gait