Comparison of manual therapy and taping in knee osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common degenerative diseases and a leading cause of severe pain and significant disability, especially in elderly people. Different methods have been suggested for treatment of OA. The aim of this study was to compare manual therapy with taping as two therapeutic methods for OA. 36 patients with OA who were in their middle ages (average age, 50.31±6.65 years) were selected through convenience sampling method. All of patients had been suffered from knee OA more than one year. Patients were randomly assigned to either taping or manual therapy. Both groups received a routine physical therapy including ultrasound and TENS. For group 1, taping was applied during 6 sessions and for group 2, manual therapy was administered for 10 sessions on a two-week period. The patients were evaluated before and after the treatment in terms of pain via NRS (numerical rating scale) and of functionality using the WOMAC (Western Ontario and McMaster Universities) osteoarthritis index. In all variables of interest, there were significant improvements after termination of treatment sessions in both groups (P<0.001).There was, however, no significant difference in joint stiffness before and after taping treatment (p=0.323).The results showed that manual therapy was significantly more effective than taping in alleviating symptoms (p< 0.05). Both manual therapy and taping had significant effect on OA of knee but manual therapy may be a better therapeutic option than taping in decreasing pain and disability of affected patients. Manual therapy is a non invasive, complication-free, and cost-effective method for conservative treatment of knee OA.