The Effects of Unloader Knee Orthosis and Lateral Wedge Insole in

Objective: patients suffering from mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis may be treated with unloaderknee orthoses or laterally wedged insoles. this study aimed to identify and compare the effects of twoorthoses in these patients.methods: 56 patients with medial compartment knee oa were evaluated when wearing an unloader kneeorthosis and insoles with a 6° lateral wedge which were randomly assigned. testing was performed atbaseline and after 6 months of use with the two types of orthoses. the koos score was used to assessoutcomes in this study. a paired t test was used for comparing base line and the 6th month postinterventions koos sub scale score. an independent t test was used for analyzing the efficacy betweenthe two orthoses.results: each of the interventions improved all the parameters comparing to the baseline condition(p=0.000). however, in comparing the effect between these orthoses, we did not find significantdifferences in activities of daily living (p=0.871), or sports and recreational activities (p=0.351). the painand symptoms (p=0.000) were, however, significantly different between the two interventions.conclusion: the unloader knee orthoses were more effective than lateral wedge insoles in reducing painand symptoms.