“Treating Knee Osteoarthritis with Wedged Insoles”
Todd Royer
In-shoe wedged orthoses have been shown to be an effective conservative
approach in reducing pain in patients with medial compartment knee
osteoarthritis (OA). The mechanism responsible for this pain reduction
is not well-understood. It is not known whether placing a lateral wedge
in the shoe results in alterations in lower extremity alignment, knee
joint moments or some combination of the two. Therefore, the purpose of
this study is to examine the effect of in-shoe wedged orthoses in
patients with knee OA. Patients between the ages of 40-75 yrs with knee
OA (KL grades II-IV) receive a laterally wedged orthosis and a pair of
walking shoes. Following a two-week accommodation period, subjects
performed walking and stair ascent/descent functional tests and rated
their knee pain, completed a gait analysis, and received hip-to-ankle
radiographs to identify differences between the wedged and no-wedged
conditions. These data are a subset of our COBRE grant investigating
the short and long-term effects of in-shoe wedged orthoses in subjects
with either medial or lateral compartment knee OA.