Introduction

Although the American College of Rheumatology has for years recommended taping osteoarthritic knees, there's little evidence that it works in reducing pain. Some Australian researchers decided to do a controlled study to see if there really are benefits from taping.

What was done

Responding to ads in local newspapers, 87 volunteers with osteoarthritis (as defined by the American College of Rheumatology) enrolled in this 6-week study. People with an allergy to tape, those who had had a knee replacement, and those who were obese (Body Mass Index over 38) were excluded from the study.

The participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: therapeutic taping, control taping (i.e. taping done to provide the sensation of being taped, but without a therapeutic effect), and no-taping. All of them were assessed at baseline, after 3 weeks of taping, and at 6 weeks (follow-up).

Taping was applied by trained physical therapists. Rigid strapping tape was applied over non-allergic tape, to provide the appropriate orientation of the knee joint ('medial glide, medial tilt, and anteroposterior tilt to the patella'). The control-taping patients had non-allergic tape only applied to the same area as the therapeutic taping patients. Taping for these two groups was re-applied weekly for 3 weeks.

The measurements of pain were recorded by someone who didn't know to which group the patient belonged. The participants were asked to rate the severity of pain over the previous week, putting a cross on a line showing the scale of pain intensity from 0 to 10. They were also asked to rate how they felt their pain had changed. Other, well-recognized assessments of pain and disability were used, to provide additional information as to the effectiveness of taping.

What was found

After 3 weeks, significant improvement in knee pain was reported by 21 of the 29 participants who had therapeutic taping (73%), compared with 14 of 29 who had control taping (49%), and 3 of 29 who had no taping (10%).

The benefits persisted for at least another 3 weeks after the taping was stopped, i.e. they were observed at the 6-week assessment. There were no beneficial effects on osteoarthritis symptoms other than knee pain, such as physical function, restriction of activity, or bodily pain.

What about side-effects? Minor skin irritation was reported by 28% of the patients who had therapeutic taping, and by one patient (3%) who had control taping. However, all the participants continued to wear their tape for 3 weeks. Pain medication usage was the same in all three test groups.

What does this mean?

This study shows that a relatively simple, inexpensive, therapy was able to provide significant pain relief to osteoarthritic knees. It should be noted, however, that the tape should be applied by a recognized physical therapist weekly, for at least 3 weeks.

Not everyone responds to therapeutic knee taping. Using the results of this study, the investigators calculated that 2 patients would need to be treated this way to be sure that at least one of them had relevant relief of pain.

The beneficial effect lasted at least 3 weeks after taping was stopped; it's not known if they would persist even longer. Further studies will doubtless clarify this point. In the meantime, the technique appears a useful, simple method that's probably worth trying for suitable patients.