FUNCTIONΑLITY AND PAIN ACCORDING TO KELLGREN – LAWRENCE CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM: RESULTS FROM 303 HIP OSTEOARTHRITIC PATIENTS

Introduction: Hip osteoarthritis (OA) is among the most prevalent and disabling conditions affecting the elderly [1]. Worldwide, there is an estimated 25% lifetime risk of symptomatic hip OA in people who live to age 85 [2]. In the Greek population, hip OA has a prevalence of 0.9/1000: 1.5/1000 in women and 0.3/1000 in men [3]. Furthermore, the symptomatic manifestations of OA contribute substantially to functional disability, significantly decreasing the patient's quality of life [4].

Purpose:  Comparison of pain and functionality levels in hip OA patients according to the Kellgren – Lawrence osteoarthritis classification system [5].

Material & Method: 303 patients with symptomatic OA hip participated in the present study. Patients were divided into three groups according to the Kellgren – Lawrence classification system (Grade 2, Grade 3, and Grade 4). Pain intensity was measured with the Face Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R) [6], while patients' functional status was evaluated with the Lower Extremity Functional Scale - Greek version (LEFS-Greek) [7,8]. Demographic and clinical characteristics were also recorded. All analyses were carried out using the statistical package SPSS vr 21.00 (IBM Corporation, Somers, NY, USA). A p-value of <0.05 was set as a level of statistical significance.

Result:  Pairwise comparisons indicated that Grade 2 presented lower nocturnal pain, morning stiffness, and percent use of assistive devices compared with Grade 3 and Grade 4 (all p-values <0.05). There is a statistically significant difference between groups concerning pain intensity; patients of Grade 2 presented lower FPS- R scores compared with Grade 3 and Grade 4 (all p-values <0.005). Regarding functionality, Grade 2 presented a higher LEFS-Greek total score compared with Grade 3 (p<0.005) and Grade 4 (p<0.005), respectively.

Conclusions: As expected, the higher the Kellgren – Lawrence grade of hip OA, the higher the pain levels and the degree of difficulty a person experiences in daily-life activities.

References

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