Abstract

Background and objective. Osteoarthritis of the knee has maintained a deviant stance against most therapeutic approaches. This study sought to investigate the comparative efficacy of open kinetic-chain (OKC) exercise and short wave diathermy (SWD) in the management of patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee.
Materials and methods. Forty five participants with knee OA consented to participate and were attending the out-patient physiotherapy department of a Nigerian teaching hospital volunteered for this study. Participation inclusion criterion was grade II osteoarthritis of the knee using the Kellgren and Lawrence classification based on X-rays. Consecutive participants were randomly assigned into OKC exercise; SWD; and combination of OKC and SWD group respectively. Pre and post-treatment pain intensity, functional ability and range of motion were recorded. Descriptive of mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics of paired t-test and Analysis of Variance were used for analysis. Alpha level was set at 0.05.
Results. All treatment regimens had significant effects on pain, functional ability and range of motion respectively (p<0.05). OKC exercise had significant effect on pain reduction (p<0.001) and similarly, there was significant improvement in functional ability and range of motion in the SWD group while combination OKC and SWD group (p<0.001).
Conclusion. OKC exercise was found to be sufficient enough to improve pain in patients with mild to moderate OA of the knee.  However, combination of OKC exercise and SWD seem to have better improvement on functional ability and range of motion.