title: Pain relief in knee osteoarthritis reduces the propensity to trip on an obstacle.
abstract: The pain associated with knee osteoarthritis (OA) has been shown to lead to an increased propensity to trip on an obstacle. Pain-relieving intra-articular injections are widely utilized in the treatment of knee OA. This study examined the effects of pain-relieving intra-articular knee injections on the ability to avoid contacting a suddenly appearing obstacle in patients with knee OA. Obstacle avoidance success rates, pain, body mass index, visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, depth perception, and single-leg stance duration were evaluated in nine patients with painful osteoarthritis of the knee and 14 age-matched healthy control subjects. Obstacle avoidance success rates, pain, and single leg stance duration were tested a second time in the patients with knee OA after they received their injections, which contained a fast-acting local anesthetic to provide rapid pain relief. After receiving the pain-relieving knee injections, patients with knee OA had 48% less pain and were 31% more successful in avoiding stepping on the obstacle. However, after receiving the injection, the obstacle avoidance success rates remained 20% less than those of the healthy controls. The results of this study suggest that knee pain-relief can decrease the propensity of people with painful knee OA to trip and fall over an obstacle. However, pain-relief alone did not return the patients with knee OA in this study to a disease-free risk of tripping.
authors.affiliation: Motion Analysis Laboratory, Section of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine, Department of Surgery, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, United States.
authors.forename: Nirav K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Pandya
authors.forename: Gary A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Piotrowski
authors.forename: Lawrence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pottenger
authors.forename: Louis F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Draganich
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control; D000368:Aged; D000779:Anesthetics, Local / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007270:Injections, Intra-Articular; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D000779:Anesthetics, Local