Effectiveness of Kinesio Taping in the Management of Knee Osteoarthritis

Abstract

Background: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the commonest chronic joint problems presenting with pain and stiffness. As a consequence, activities of daily living are limited and decline the quality of life. Kinesio tape (KT) has been popular in worldwide by its positive effects including reducing pain, relieving stiffness and improving function. However, the therapeutic application tension, direction and technique have not been identified yet and still weak evidence in OA knee.
 Aims: To find out the effectiveness of Kinesio taping in the management of OA knee.
 Study Design: Hospital based randomized control trial.
 Place and duration of Study: This study was conducted in the Outpatient Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in both Mandalay Orthopedics Hospital and 300 Bedded Teaching Hospital, Mandalay. It was started from May, 2017 to August, 2018.
 Methodology: A total of 60 patients were randomly assigned into group A and group B. Group A (intervention group) received KT plus conventional exercise and group B (control group) received conventional exercise alone. Both groups were assessed in week 0 (before study), week 2 (during study) and week 3 (end of study). Assessments measures were VAS, WOMAC index and TUG test. The amount of analgesic consumptions was recorded in week 2 and week 3 assessments.
 Results: There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics of patients between the two groups. The intragroup analysis showed significant difference in VAS, WOMAC index and TUG test (p<0.05) in both groups. However, intergroup analysis showed more significant improvements of VAS, WOMAC index and TUG test in intervention group than control group in week 2 and week 3 (p<0.05).
 Conclusion: KT plus conventional exercise is more effective than conventional exercise alone in terms of relieving pain, reducing stiffness and improving function in patients with OA knee.

<p>Effectiveness of Kinesio Taping on the Management of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials</p>

“…This improvement may be related to the pain relief effect of KT and regulation of muscle tone by KT. Besides, Nwe et al's 45 study also showed more significant reduction of pain, ROM, improving function and reduction in analgesics consumption was found in intervention group than control group in patients with OA knee. This inconsistent finding may also contribute from various severity levels of knee OA, although we failed to find the available evidence.…”

“…[33][34][35][36]39,40,42,43,45,47,48 However, only two studies (n=81) reported the KT group had no improvement of knee pain compared to that of the control groups. 38,44 A total of 13 studies (n=136) assessed knee pain intensity by using VAS 33,35,36,40,42,45,48 and four studies assessed pain intensity by using the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS). 34,39,41,47 Effectiveness of KT on Knee Joint ROM Out of the included trails, seven of them (n=422) had assed ROM.…”

“…From these, five studies (n= 306) reported that KT has beneficial effects on joint mobility for OA patients compared to the control groups. 35,36,41,43,45 From those, two of the studies (n=69 knee joint mobility was assessed by pain-free passive ROM using an electronic digital goniometer, 41,43 and two studies (n=177) were assessed by pain-free active ROM. 33,43 However, there were two studies (n=116) the KT group had no improvement of knee ROM compared to that of the other intervention groups.…”

“…Nine of them (n=609) had reported that KT has beneficial effects on functional activities in OA patients compared to the control groups. 34,35,39,[41][42][43]45,47 Only one study (n=76) showed that KT had no significant effect on knee-related physical function in patients with knee osteoarthritis. 46…”

Influence of Kinesio Tape on Lower Limb Muscular Activity after Knee Joint Rehabilitation Program

“…Consequently, it decreases the incidence of inflammation and oedema or swelling. Nwe, Tun, Aung, and Myaing (2019) demonstrated that when using Kinesio tape on knee joint with performing some traditional exercises in individuals with osteoarthritis, this led to positive results where it relieved pain, decreased stiffness of knee joint and led to improving the performance of knee joint compared to not using Kinesio tape . Doğan et al (2019) showed that when using Kinesio tape led to positive effect and improvement of flexion and extension of knee and increase in neuromuscular activity of knee.…”