Lateral wedging for knee OA
Osteoarthritis affecting the knee is an extremely common condition in those over the age of 50 years. It poses a costs the individual in terms of pain and suffering and health care costs. It also has a really big impact on quality of life. The two main causing agents are obesity and what the biomechanists call a higher knee adduction moment. This "moment" is a force related to the angle of the knee to vertical. Bow legs are the most significant factor that increases these forces through the knee to casue the arthitis.
Recently there has been a lot of use of lateral wedges for medial knee osteoarthritis. Lateral wedges wedges of rubber placed in the shoe to change the angle of the foot which changes the biomechanics of the knee. They only work for medial knee osteoarthritis, which primarily affects the inside of the knee. They do not work for arthritis on the lateral or outside of the knee. Research has shown that lateral wedging generally do improve symptoms in a large proportion of people. There are also a large group of people that they do not seem to work in, but given their relatively low cost, no harm is done.