EXTENDED REPORT

Investigation of hip abductor activation in subjects with clinical unilateral hip osteoarthritis

K J Sims¹, C A Richardson¹, S G Brauer²

¹ Department of Physiotherapy, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia
² Department of Physiotherapy, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr K Sims, Department of Physiotherapy, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia;
kevsims{at}hotmail.com

Objectives: (a) To compare the magnitude of gluteus medius and tensor fascia lata activation between a group of subjects with clinical unilateral hip osteoarthritis and a group of healthy older adults. (b) To compare the magnitude of activation of the gluteus medius and tensor fascia lata between sides in a group of subjects with clinical unilateral hip osteoarthritis and a group of healthy older adults.

Methods: 19 subjects with clinical unilateral hip osteoarthritis and 19 healthy controls were investigated. The subjects performed a stepping task during which recordings were obtained using surface electromyograms from the hip abductors, and kinetic data were obtained from a dual force platform.

Results: Subjects with clinical hip osteoarthritis had higher gluteus medius activation than the healthy older adults (p=0.037). In addition, there were no differences in the magnitude of gluteus medius activation between the sides (p=0.733). There was no difference in the force platform data between the groups (p=0.078).

Conclusions: The increased magnitude of gluteus medius activation in the group with hip osteoarthritis is evidence of a muscular dysfunction associated with hip disease. This has implications for the progressive nature of the disease and for its conservative management.

Keywords: gluteus medius; stepping; hip; osteoarthritis

Abbreviations: AP, anteroposterior; COP, centre of pressure; EMG, electromyography; GMD, gluteus medius; ML, mediolateral; OA, osteoarthritis; RM-ANOVA, repeated measures analysis of variance; RMS, root mean square; TFL, tensor fascia lata; VAS, visual analogue scale; WOMAC, Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis (index)

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