Foot orthoses provide knee pain relief in study

Prefabricated foot orthoses are superior to flat inserts in the short-term improvement of patellofemoral pain, according to a randomized clinical trial conducted at the University of Queensland's School of Rehabilitation and Health Sciences in Brisbane, Australia. The study was published in the British Medical Journal.1

The four study test groups included those using Vasyli Medical foot orthoses, those wearing the flat inserts (placebo), those undergoing multimodal physiotherapy, and those using a combination of physiotherapy and foot orthoses. Participating in the study were 179 subjects, aged 18 to 40, who had clinical diagnoses of patellofemoral pain.

Subjects were evaluated over a 52-week period and all groups showed long-term improvement in patellofemoral pain management with no significant differences. At six weeks, the group using the Vasyli Medical foot orthoses experienced superior levels of knee pain relief when compared with the placebo group using flat inserts.

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1 Foot orthoses and physiotherapy in the treatment of patellofemoral pain syndrome: randomised clinical trial
Natalie Collins, PhD candidate,1 Kay Crossley, principal research fellow,2 Elaine Beller, director, biostatistics,3 Ross Darnell, statistician,1 Thomas McPoil, regents professor,4 and Bill Vicenzino, head of division, physiotherapy1