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Special shoes and wedges sometimes are recommended for patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA), usually to unload the medial compartment of the knee and reduce pain. Another approach, individualized biomechanical footwear based on gait analysis, uses convex pods to improve gait. To assess their utility, researchers conducted a single-center, randomized trial that involved 220 adults (mean age, 65) with knee OA (50% with prior meniscus resection; 91% with medial compartment OA).
Participants were assigned to wear either individualized biomechanical footwear consisting of two adjustable convex rubber pods attached to the soles of a shoe, or sham footwear that appeared the same but did not create a convex walking surface. At 24 weeks, use of the…