Knee Injury: A Case Study

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Series of alterations have been found on knee due to the wear of HH. According to Mika et al. (2012) the knee appeared to be more flexed during the stance phase while wearing HH. This conclusion was made when evaluating the changes of electromyopraphic activity of lower limb muscles of women in 3 conditions: (1) without shoes, (2) with 4 cm heel shoes and, (3) with 10 cm heel shoes. The evaluation included knee joint range of motion in the sagittal plane and knee joints alignment angle in the gait cycle.
Results to Mika et al. (2012) analysis showed that knee ROM was greater while using 4 cm heel shoes than while walking without shoes and with shoes of 10 cm of height (Figure 1). Also, knee flexion was revealed to significantly increase when …show more content…

(2000) suggested that high-heeled shoes increase the reaction force activity and knee torque, which may contribute to the degeneration of the patellofemoral compartment. (Stefanyshyn et al., 2000) The increase on knee flexion can be explain to be a compensatory mechanism to reduce the increases in ground reaction forces according to Ucanok et al. (2006). The observations suggest that HH may lead to prolonged increases in reaction force activity, which could lead to knee overload. Additionally, it appeared that compensatory mechanisms might be compromised during gait with HH shoes causing increase in muscle activity that may lead to muscle fatigue, overuse and ultimately strain injuries. (Mika et al., 2012) Increase in knee flexion influences the amplitude and duration of knee extensor moment (Ho et al, 2012). A study made by Ho et al. (2012) concluded that an increase in the knee extensor moment and knee flexion angle while walking with high heeled shoes caused elevated patellofemoral joint stress. This increase in knee extensor was also found in other studies such as the one of Ebbeling et al. (1994). However, Kerrigan et al. (2005) reported that there was no increase in the knee extensor moment during the stance phase of gait using HH compared with shoes without heel. This inconsistent may be due to a difference in the height of the heel or in walking speeds. (Cronin et al., 2014). Accordingly, walking in a certain speed and with a certain heel height might cause an increase in the peak knee extensor moment. (Cronin et al.,

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