Effects of pericapsular soft tissue and realignment exercises for patients with osteoarthritis of the hip and Harris Hip Score below 60 points.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the effectiveness of pericapsular soft tissue and realignment (PSTR) exercises for patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip and Harris Hip Score (HHS) below 60 points. Most previous studies of hip exercise have not been applied for patients with moderate to severe hip OA, especially those with an HHS below 60 points. Most studies of hip exercise in OA have involved muscle strength training, stretching, functional training and aerobic fitness programs, and have not included pelvic realignment exercise. We investigated the effect of pelvic realignment exercise for patients with hip OA and HHS below 60 points.

METHODS

Design: multicenter, prospective, observational, single-arm study. Setting: clinical examination on an outpatient basis. Participants: 193 patients with hip OA and HHS below 60 points. Interventions: patient education and supervised PSTR exercises. Outcome measures: primary outcome: HHS; secondary outcomes: changes in numerical rating scale (NRS) scores, abduction of range of motion, Timed Up and Go (TUG) test within 30 min after PSTR exercises at baseline and other six items, full analysis set (FAS, all participants who performed PSTR exercises) and subgroup analysis (participants with minimal joint space (MJS) of 0 mm at baseline).

RESULTS

FAS analysis ( = 193): significant differences in HHS were found between baseline and 3 month follow-up, and between baseline and 6 month follow-up in the Unilateral and Bilateral OA groups ( < .001). All mean differences were within the 95% confidence interval. Significant improvement in NRS scores, abduction of range of motion, and TUG test within 30 min after PSTR exercises were found at baseline ( < .001). Subgroup analysis ( = 130): the results revealed significant differences ( < .001) in HHS and NRS, abduction of range of motion and TUG test within 30 min after PSTR exercises at baseline, as in the FAS analysis.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggested that PSTR exercises were effective for patients with HHS below 60 points, even those with MJS of 0 mm.

CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRY

20 July 2017 (UMIN000028277).