Listening To Knee Osteoarthritis May Help Knee Pain

UK researchers have developed an acoustic device which listens to the sounds noisy knees make and could screen for early onset of osteoarthritis or OA. Millions of people suffer from osteoarthritis of the knees in the world and the treatment and management of this condition is very expensive and difficult.

An arthritic knee typically makes sounds of varying kinds such as cracking and grinding, often but not always accompanied by pain. The aim was to identify the patterns of sound the joint is giving off to help indicate how the joint is changing internally. Professor John Goodacre at Lancaster University is the lead researcher and the research is publicised on the BBC Health Website.

Early indications that a knee joint is becoming arthritic may open the door to earlier treatments such as lifestyle modification, weight loss, use of walking aids and medication. The study looked at the noises coming from knees as the subjects stood up from sitting. The device is planned to be portable and could be used in practices to monitor the changes which occur in patients' knees with time.
Merseyside physiotherapists know that osteoarthritis has no effective drug treatments and that management rotates around physiotherapy such as exercise, self management, walking aids, weight loss, coping and medication.