Osteopathic Treatment of Patients with Coxarthrosis: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: The study aimed to deliver valid data for the short-term effect of osteopathic manual treatments for patients with advanced osteoarthritis of the hip. Methods: For this prospective, randomised controlled trial patients diagnosed with coxar-throsis were randomly allocated to an intervention group and a control group. The patients in the intervention group received osteopathic treatment on three occasions for nine weeks. The control group did not receive any treatment. At the beginning and the end of the study, all patients had to specify their level of pain in general, whether they felt pain at walking, when climbing stairs and when lying. In addition, patients were questioned about re-strictions in their daily activities. Results: For the level of pain in general, the arithmetic mean of the intervention group (n = 15) decreased from 5.333 points (SD 1.589) at the start of the treatment (on a scale from 1 to 10) to 4.733 points (SD 1.534) at the end of the study. This represents a statistically signif-icant change (p = 0.047). The other parameters improved for the patients who received os-teopathic treatment, although they did not reach the level of significance. The control group (n = 15) had the same measurements from the beginning to the end of the study. Conclusions: Only a small segment of the outcome reached statistical significance. Never-theless, a beneficial impact of the osteopathic treatment for patients with coxarthrosis was observed. Further research should carefully consider the methods and design needed to reach statistically significant outcomes. Keywords: arthritis, coxarthrosis, hip, OMT, osteoarthritis, osteopathy