Effects of medical exercise therapy in patients with hip osteoarthritis: A randomized controlled trial with six months follow-up. A pilot study.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: There is no consensus regarding what type of exercises, combination of exercises or exercise dosage is most effective in patients with long-term hip arthrosis. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of two different exercise programs related to dose-response relationships.

METHOD: Prospective randomized controlled clinical trial with 6 months follow where 33 participants were randomly assigned to either high repetitive, high dosage medical exercise therapy (MET) (n = 16) or low dosage exercise therapy (ET) (n = 17). Primary outcomes are pain using a visual analog scale (VAS) and function using a functional assessment questionnaire (WOMAC).

RESULTS: Patients were equal at baseline. Two patients (6%) dropped out during the treatment period. There were no difference between groups after end of treatment nor at 6 months follow up. However, there were significant differences within each exercise group at end of treatment.

CONCLUSION: In this pilot study, we were not able to show any difference between MET and ET. More research is needed with a larger patient population and a more extensive exercise period similar to other studies that are published regarding dose-response effects. Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT01700933.