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The first peak of the knee adduction moment has been linked to the presence, severity, and progression of medial compartment knee osteoarthritis. The objective of this study was to evaluate toe-in gait (decreased foot progression angle from baseline through internal foot rotation) as a means to reduce the first peak of the knee adduction moment in subjects with medial compartment knee osteoarthritis. Additionally, we examined whether the first peak in the knee adduction moment would cause a concomitant increase in the peak external knee flexion moment, which can eliminate reductions in the medial compartment force that result from lowering the knee adduction moment. We tested the following hypotheses: (a) toe-in gait reduces the first peak of the knee adduction moment, and (b) toe-in gait does not increase the peak external knee flexion moment. Twelve patients with medial compartment knee osteoarthritis first performed baseline walking trials and then toe-in gait trials at their self-selected speed on an instrumented treadmill in a motion capture laboratory. Subjects altered their foot progression angle from baseline to toe-in gait by an average of 5° (p<0.01), which reduced the first peak of the knee adduction moment by an average of 13% (p<0.01). Toe-in gait did not increase the peak external knee flexion moment (p=0.85). The reduced knee adduction moment was accompanied by a medially-shifted knee joint center and a laterally-shifted center of pressure during early stance. These results suggest that toe-in gait may be a promising non-surgical treatment for patients with medial compartment knee osteoarthritis., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate gait retraining for reducing the knee adduction moment. Our primary objective was to determine whether subject-specific altered gaits aimed at reducing the knee adduction moment by 30% or more could be identified and adopted in a single session through haptic (touch) feedback training on multiple kinematic gait parameters. Nine healthy subjects performed gait retraining, in which data-driven models specific to each subject were determined through experimental trials and were used to train novel gaits involving a combination of kinematic changes to the tibia angle, foot progression and trunk sway angles. Wearable haptic devices were used on the back, knee and foot for real-time feedback. All subjects were able to adopt altered gaits requiring simultaneous changes to multiple kinematic parameters and reduced their knee adduction moments by 29-48%. Analysis of single parameter gait training showed that moving the knee medially by increasing tibia angle, increasing trunk sway and toeing in all reduced the first peak of the knee adduction moment with tibia angle changes having the most dramatic effect. These results suggest that individualized data-driven gait retraining may be a viable option for reducing the knee adduction moment as a treatment method for early-stage knee osteoarthritis patients with sufficient sensation, endurance and motor learning capabilities., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)