Effects of Preoperative Aquatic Resistance Training on Knee Pain, Mobility Limitation and Muscle Impairments in People with Late-Stage Knee Osteoarthritis

Background: Knee joint osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common joint disease in the world. It causes severe pain, and further leads to muscle weakness, mobility limitation, and thus disability. Exercise is an important part of the conservative treatment for knee OA. However, it is difficult to find training methods, which would be effective in increasing muscle strength, decreasing pain and mobility limitation with minimal adverse effects. Aquatic training offers several benefits for training for people with painful weight-bearing joints of the lower limbs. Earlier aquatic training studies without additional resistance have mostly found positive effects on mobility and muscle strength in people with mild to moderate knee OA. It is unclear, however, whether people with severe painful late-stage knee OA could tolerate progressive aquatic training with additional resistance.