Therapeutic significance of insoles in patients with knee osteoarthritis

- OBJECTIVE: The effects of in-soles on managing knee osteoarthritis (KOA) symptoms remain controversial. This system-atic review provides insights into the thera-peutic effects and outcomes of insole use in older adults with KOA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The PubMed database was reviewed according to the Pre-ferred Reporting Items for Systematic Re-views and Meta-analyses (PRISMA). The ar-ticles' titles, abstracts, and eligibility per the inclusion criteria were screened for rele-vance. Duplicated articles were removed, and full-text articles were retrieved for further as-sessment, in accordance with the eligibility criteria. The included articles have been an-alyzed for general information, participants, and relevant findings, such as painful symp-toms, loading rate, and external knee adduc-tion moment (EKAM). RESULTS: The initial search identified 335 ar-ticles. Nine studies, including seven random-ized controlled trials, one cross-sectional study, and one cohort study, were included for review per the eligibility criteria. There were 639 KOA patients, of which the majority were female, di-agnosed with Kellgren-Lawrence grades 2-3, with a mean age of 54.5 years. The lateral wedge insole helped reducing EKAM and loading rates in patients with KOA. We detetced no signifi-cant reduction in pain following the use of lat-eral wedge insoles. However, lateral wedge in-soles combined with customized arch support showed significant improvements in pain and physical function in KOA patients. CONCLUSIONS: Lateral wedge insoles with arch support significantly improved pain and physical function in patients with KOA. Other in-soles did not provide significant positive out-comes regarding pain reduction or joint deterio-ration in KOA patients.