A clinical evaluation of isokinetic training for correcting patellar tracking after total knee replacement / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the effects of isokinetic quadriceps training with different ranges of motion for improving mal-patellar tracking after total knee replacement (TKR). Methods Isokinetic quadriceps training was administered to 52 TKR cases, involving 66 knee joints with poor patellar tracking. The subjects were randomly allocated into 3 groups for isokinetic training with ranges of 0-30°, 30-60° or 60-90°, with 22 knee joints in each group. The angular velocity was set at 30°/second. X-rays with loading and with 45° knee flexion were taken before and after the training. The lateral patello-femoral angle,the patella index and the patello-femoral index were recorded along with the maximum torque ( MT), the total work ( TW ), and the average work(AW) in the three different ranges of motion. Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) scores were also recorded. Results After 3 months of training, the average lateral patello-femoral angle, patella index, and patello-femoral index in the 0-30° training group were all significantly better than before the training. However, there was no significant difference in these measures for the 30-60° and 60-90° groups. After training average MT, TW and AW increased significantly in all groups, but the improvements were significantly correlated with the differences in lateral patello-femoral angles, patella indices and patello-femoral indices only for the 0-30°group. When compared with the baseline values, a statistically significant difference in HSS score after training was observed only in the 0-30° training group. Conclusions Isokinetic quadriceps training with a 0-30° range of motion can best realign patellar tracking after TKR, and best improve knee function.