Dynamic hip stability, strength and pain before and after hip abductor strengthening exercises for patients with dysplastic hips

• Published in: Isokinetics and exercise science 2013-01, Vol.21 (2), p.95-100
• Main Authors: Kuroda, Daisuke, Maeyama, Akira, Naito, Masatoshi, Moriyama, Shigeki, Yoshimura, Ichiro, Nakamura, Yoshinari, Kiyama, Takahiko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0959-3020; 1878-5913
• DOI: 10.3233/IES-130480

PURPOSE: We compared the dynamic instability of dysplastic hips using a triaxial accelerometer before and after abductor muscle strengthening exercises to determine if such exercises could achieve improvements in hip pain and associated symptoms.METHODS: We evaluated 17 hips in 17 female patients with a mean age of 37 years who presented with hip joint symptoms and acetabular dysplasia. At the initial diagnosis, we used a triaxial accelerometer to measure dynamic instability of the hip during walking. Patients were taught how and instructed to perform abductor muscle strengthening exercises for 3 months. After this time, we re-measured. we compared these values before and after exercise.RESULTS: The average abductor muscle strength improved from 104.4 35.4 N to 124.3 35.9 N after exercise, an improvement of approximately 16%. The overall magnitude of acceleration significantly decreased from 2.40 0.34 m/s super(2) at pre-exercise to 1.82 0.28 m/s super(2) at post-exercise (p 0.0001). The VAS also significantly improved (p=0.0005). In all cases, hip joint symptoms were significantly improved by the performance of the studied abductor muscle strengthening exercises.CONCLUSIONS: Using a triaxial accelerometer, we have shown that instability of the hip during walking can be improved by abductor muscle strengthening exercises.