INFLUENCE OF SPINAL EXERCISES AS AN ADJUNCT TO CONVENTIONAL PHYSIOTHERAPY ON PAIN AND FUNCTIONAL MOBILITY IN CHRONIC KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the chronic problems affecting older people that causes pain and physical disability that impairs functional impairment of the knee OA patients significantly . As there is interconnection between the spine and knee,most of the patients with knee OA experiences spinal muscle weakness. So the aim of the study is reduce the pain and improve functional mobility of participants using spinal exercises. To compare the influence of spinal exercises as an adjunct to conventional physiotherapy on pain and functional mobility in chronic knee osteoarthritis. The study was conducted at physiotherapy outpatient department of Krishna Hospital and MRC, Karad. Sample size was 70 which were further divided into 2 groups each containing 35 participants by simple consecutive sampling method. Group A was given spinal exercises along with SWD and conventional knee exercises. Group B was control group which was given only SWD and conventional knee exercises. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS- Data was analysed using paired and unpaired t test. Paired and unpaired t-test were used for statistical analysis. In pre intervention, there was no statistically significant difference seen in p values for VAS which was 0.7685 ,WOMAC was 0.3924 and SPBFU was 0.7792. On comparing the post intervention score, the results showed extremely significant difference was seen with p-value for VAS, WOMAC and SPBFU which was <0.0001 respectively. The study concluded that spinal exercises along with SWD and conventional knee exercises was more effective in decreasing the pain and improving functional mobility in subjects with chronic knee osteoarthritis.