Abnormal loading of the hip and knee joints in unilateral hip osteoarthritis persists two years after total hip replacement.

A total hip replacement (THR) is a common and routine procedure to reduce pain and restore normal activity. Gait analysis can provide insights into functional characteristics and dynamic joint loading situation not identifiable by clinical examination or static radiographic measures. The present prospective longitudinal study tested whether 2 years after surgery a THR would restore dynamic loading of the knee and hip joints in the frontal plane to normal.

Unilateral hip osteoarthritis: The effect of compensation strategies and anatomic measurements on frontal plane joint loading.

In order to reduce pain caused by the affected hip joint, unilateral hip osteoarthritis patients (HOAP) adopt characteristic gait patterns. However, it is unknown if the knee and hip joint loading in the non-affected (limb ) and the affected (limb ) limb differ from healthy controls (HC) and which gait parameters correlate with potential abnormal joint loading. Instrumented 3D-gait analysis was performed on 18 HOAP and 18 sex, age, and height matched HC.

Calculation of muscle forces during normal gait under consideration of femoral bending moments.

This paper introduces a new approach for computing lower extremity muscle forces by incorporating equations that consider "bone structure" and "prevention of bending by load reduction" into existing optimization algorithms. Lower extremity muscle and joint forces, during normal gait, were calculated and compared using two different optimization approaches. We added constraint equations that prevent femoral bending loads to an existing approach that considers "minimal total muscular force".

Unilateral hip osteoarthritis: Its effects on preoperative lower limb muscle activation and intramuscular coordination patterns.

The objective of this study was to test if patients with unilateral hip osteoarthritis (OA) show greater muscle activity asymmetry between their affected and non-affected limbs than healthy controls between their left and right limbs. Seventeen patients with unilateral hip OA (7 females, 10 males) and 17 age-matched healthy controls (7 females, 10 males) participated in this study. Both groups performed instrumented gait analysis at comparable speeds.