Goal

• To determine differences in joint loading between an anti-inflammatory/analgesic drug treatment, analgesic drug treatment, and placebo in people with medial compartment knee osteoarthritis.

Major Findings

• Walking speed was significantly faster for the NSAID and Opioid compared to Placebo treatment.
• There were changes in total reaction moments and ground reaction forces only for the NSAID. This suggests greater increases in joint loading occur when joint inflammation is treated in addition to pain.
• The total knee reaction moment representing the magnitude of the extrinsic moment appears to be a sensitive biomarker, more so than self-reported metrics, for evaluating knee OA treatment effects.

Representative Publications

• Sensitivity of gait parameters to the effects of anti-inflammatory and opioid treatments in knee osteoarthritis patients. Boyer, K.A; Angst, M.S., MD; Asay J, Giori, N.J, Andriacchi, T.P. (In review, Journal of Orthopedic Research)

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