Therapeutic knee taping decreases pain from knee osteoarthritis

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Therapeutic knee taping decreases pain from knee osteoarthritis

J Fam Pract. 2003 December;52(12):919-941

By

Richard W. Lord Jr, MD

BACKGROUND: The American College of Rheumatology has recommended knee taping as a therapy for osteoarthritis, but there are only small, limited studies of its benefit. This study attempts to determine if 3 weeks of knee taping will decrease pain and disability during therapy as well as provide relief after taping is stopped.
POPULATION STUDIED: Participants for this study were drawn from volunteers in an Australian community who responded to advertisements in local papers. The researchers included people who met criteria of the American College of Rheumatology (presence of osteophytes on x-ray, age >50 years, and pain in the knee). They excluded people with joint replacement; possible other causes for knee pain; BMI >38; rheumatoid arthritis; physical therapy, steroid injections, or surgery in the past 6 months; or a history of knee taping. The patients in this study are similar to a primary care population based on age, BMI, and severity of osteoarthritis. The population studied may be slightly different from the general population because they responded to an advertisement; the racial make-up was not reported.
STUDY DESIGN AND VALIDITY: This was a randomized, single-blinded controlled trial with 3 treatment arms: therapeutic taping, control taping, and no taping. Randomization was performed by blocks of 3, stratified by sex. The treatment group had rigid taping applied to provide medial glide, medial tilt, and anteroposterior lift to the patella. The tape was applied once a week for 3 weeks. Twelve physical therapists— 4 in a university setting and 8 in private practice—applied the tape. Having different therapists apply the tape added to the generalizability of the study. The control group had soft tape applied once a week for 3 weeks. All patients had assessments of pain and disability performed by a blinded evaluator at baseline, 3 weeks, and 6 weeks.
OUTCOMES MEASURED: The outcomes measured in the study were change in pain, average pain in the previous week, and degree of disability. To assess pain they used an 11-cm, 10-point visual analog scale; patients also rated the average severity of knee pain over the previous week using a Likert scale. Disability was measured using a visual analog scale and the Short Form-36. Secondary measures were made with the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index. Analysis was on-treatment rather than intention-to-treat.
RESULTS: A total of 87 people were randomized into the 3 groups. Only 1 patient in the control group withdrew from treatment. At 3 and 6 weeks, the therapeutictaping group had a significant reduction in pain and disability, both from baseline and as compared with the control-taping and no-taping groups. The mean reduction in pain on the analog scale was 2.1/10 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3–2.8) for the therapeutic-taping group, compared with a 0.1 (95% CI, –0.8 to 0.9) increase in the control group. Most (73%) of the therapeutic-taping group reported reduced pain at 3 weeks, compared with 10% of the control group (number needed to treat=1.8; 95% CI, 1.8–2.2). The control-taping group had some decrease in symptoms, but it was significantly less than the therapeutic-tape groups. Similar results were found on the secondary outcome measures as well.

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Therapeutic knee taping decreases pain from knee osteoarthritis

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