Blood Flow Restriction Exercises and Conservative Exercises in Knee Osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a rheumatic disease that causes serious cartilage damage in the knee joint. Moderate physical activity can slow cartilage degeneration in moderate OA stages. Remarkable weakness and atrophy of the quadriceps and hamstrings is a common problem in patients with chronic osteoarthritis, but in arthritis, it may be difficult to achieve strength gains due to the pain caused by heavy load-resistant exercises. Exercising with these high loads may not be possible or may injure painful arthritic knees. For this reason, lately, blood flow restriction exercises have been directed to achieve the same gain by exercising with lower loads by restricting the blood flow with a cuff. We aimed to limit the blood flow in osteoarthritic knees and to provide strength gain and pain reduction provided by conventional exercises given routinely. Our hypothesis in this study is that exercises that blood flow restriction exercises will reduce pain and increase strength as well as conventional exercises.