PROPRIOCEPTIVE NEUROMUSCULAR FACILITATION - AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO TREAT OSTEOARTHRITIS KNEE PATIENTS.

Aim: Osteoarthritis (OA) knee is one of the major cause of mobility impairment, particularly amongpeople of age group 40 years and above .Though there are many treatments available for OA both Pharmacological and Non pharmacological, explore of PNF technique in OA knee is still in lacunae. To fillip the gap, the aim of this study is to find out the immediate effect of Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) stretching in osteoarthritis knee patients. Methods: A prospective study was conducted at National Institute of Medical Science Superspeciality Hospital, Jaipur. This study included 1 00 patients and they were divided into Group A (n=50), which was control group and Group B (n=50) was experimental group.Group A and B under went out comemeasur ing tools like p ain measured using Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS), Range of Motion ( R OM) of knee joint measured using Universal g oniometer and Functional activities of knee joint measured using short form Western Ontario and Mc Master Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) before and after treatment. Group A patients receivedMoist Hot Pack (MHP) in knee joint for 5 minutes , where as Group B patients received MHP for 5 minutes and PNF stretching(Contract Relax - Antagonist Contract) for 3 min utes. The pre and post treatment data were recorded in Microsoft Excel and Student T- Test was used to evaluate clinical significance between groups. Results: It was found that Group B patients treated by PNF stretching improved a lot in OA knee symptoms with negligible effects in Group A patients treated by Moist hot pack. Conclusion: It was concluded from the study that PNF stretching may be a treatment option for patients with OA knee .