Background:KOA as a high incidence of old age seriously affects the quality of life of the elderly. The valgus knee bracesareaimportantphysical therapy for KOA, but its specific effect is not clear.This meta-analysisis to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of valgus knee braces on pain and function improvement in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA).Methods :A meta-analysis of clinical randomized controlled trials(RCTs) on pain and functional changes in patients with KOA after using valgus knee braces. The search period is from the self-built database to May 2020, and the search range is PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases. First, two authors independently screened the literature, formulated inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria, and determined the included literature. The researchers then extracted the interventions and outcome indicators of included literature, and assessed the risk of bias through Cochrane Handbook 5.0.1. Finally, Revman5.3 was used for data analysis.Results :A total of 10 articles were included in this study, including 739 patients. 8 articles related to the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) pain score, the results showed that RR = -0.29, 95% CI [-0.73, 0.15], P = 0.20; There were 4 articles on the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) function score, the results showed that RR = -0.15, 95% CI [-0.41,0.11], P = 0.26; Two articles related to the impact of Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) score, the results showed that RR = 0.58, 95% CI [-4.25, 5.42], P = 0.81; 3articles were related to KOOS activities of daily living (KOOS-ADL) score, the results showed that RR = 0.04, 95% CI [-0.62,0.69], P = 0.91.These results indicated that the valgus knee braces have no statistically significant in pain and functional activity improvement of patients with KOA. The subgroup analysis showed that the follow-up time was the source of the heterogeneity of the VAS pain score. Conclusion :The current evidence suggests that valgus knee braces may not effectively improve pain symptom and functional activity in KOA patients in the long-term, but only benefit KOA patients in the short-term.

Background: KOA, with a high incidence in old-age population, adversely affects their life quality. The valgus knee bracing is an important physical therapy for KOA, but its clinical effects on pain release and functional improvment are remained unclear. This meta-analysis is to systematically evaluate the clinical outcomes of valgus knee bracing in patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Methods : A meta-analysis of clinical randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on pain and functional changes in patients with KOA after using valgus knee braces. The search period was ranged from the inception of the database to May, 2020. The enrolled research databases included PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases. Two investigators independently formulated inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria, screened and determined the final enrolled literatures. Then the outcome indicators were extracted and organized from the included literature, and the risk of bias was assessed by Cochrane Handbook 5.0.1.Results :A total of 10 articles were included in this study, including 739 patients. Eight articles were related to the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) pain score, the results showed that RR = -0.29, 95% CI [-0.73, 0.15], P = 0.20; Four articles were related to the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) function score, the results showed that RR = -0.15, 95% CI [-0.41,0.11], P = 0.26; Two articles were related to the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), the results showed that RR = 0.58, 95% CI [-4.25, 5.42], P = 0.81; Three articles were related to the KOOS activities of daily living (KOOS-ADL), the results showed that RR = 0.04, 95% CI [-0.62,0.69], P = 0.91.These results indicated that the valgus knee bracing have no statistically significant in pain and functional activity improvement of patients with KOA. The subgroup analysis showed that the follow-up time was the source of the heterogeneity of the VAS pain score. Conclusion : Our current evidence suggests that valgus knee bracing may not improve pain release and function activates in KOA patients in the long-term period, but only being beneficial to the short-term rehabilitation.