Improvement of muscle strength in osteoarthritic knee patients after intraarticular knee injection of hyaluronan.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate whether the knee concentric and eccentric muscle strengths can be improved in patients with bilateral knee osteoarthritis after intraarticular hyaluronan injections. A total of 25 patients with bilateral knee osteoarthritis and with a radiographic Ahlbäck grading scale of I or II participated in this study. One session of intraarticular knee injection of hyaluronan was given to both knees (weekly intraarticular knee hyaluronan injections for a total of 5 wks). Knee concentric and eccentric muscle strengths were recorded between 10 and 90 degrees of knee flexion. The recordings were done on two angular velocities, 80 and 240 degrees/sec. This study took place in a tertiary medical center with a gait laboratory and a KIN-COM isokinetic dynamometer. An increase in concentric and eccentric muscle strength adjusted for body weight (P < 0.01) was observed in both knees, ranging between 5.1% and 27.7%. The decreased knee muscle contraction strength (concentric and eccentric) can be improved in knee osteoarthritis patients with an Ahlbäck grading scale of I or II after five weekly intraarticular knee injections of hyaluronan.