The OPTIKNEE group is working to prevent osteoarthritis after knee injury

OPTIKNEE is an international group of over ~40 scientists, patients and health care professionals working to address prevention of osteoarthritis after a knee injury. Knee injuries can be life-altering. They may eventually lead to osteoarthritis which has a crippling effect on healthcare systems globally. Despite these facts, there is little attention given to the prevention of knee osteoarthritis after injury.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Jackie Whittaker, PT, PhD: Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia, and research scientist at Arthritis Research Canada

Preventing Osteoarthritis after a knee injury

Over the last three years The OPTIKNEE group, led by Dr. Jackie Whittaker, has combined evidence from ~230 studies including >133,000 people with knee injuries to identify key findings within several areas of research in 7 systematic reviews. These 7 systematic reviews also informed a consensus process that made 8 recommendations for health care after knee injury and 6 recommendations for future research aimed at preventing knee osteoarthritis after injury. The clinical recommendations will ensure the best care of patients following a traumatic knee injury so that they don’t develop osteoarthritis. The research recommendations both lay the foundation for future research to use similar methods and data so that the results of individual studies can be easily combined and to encourage collaboration across researchers to use collective resources that will overcome common barriers.

OPTIKNEE emerged out of a meeting focused on setting priorities for preventing osteoarthritis after knee injury that was held before the Osteoarthritis Research Society International Congress (Toronto 2019) made possible by funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute for Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis. Six of the 7 reviews and the consensus paper will be published together as the last issue of the prestigious British Journal of Sports Medicine (99^th percentile of orthopaedic and sports medicine journal, 1/284, 2022 impact factor 18.473) for 2022. This outputs of the OPTIKNEE group are expected to change the face of care for persons that experience a traumatic knee injury, and drive innovation.

Systematic Reviews

• Long-term quality of life, work limitation, physical activity, economic cost and disease burden following ACL and meniscal injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis for the OPTIKNEE consensus.

• Risk factors for knee osteoarthritis after traumatic knee injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials and cohort studies for the OPTIKNEE Consensus

• Meaningful thresholds for patient-reported outcomes following interventions for anterior cruciate ligament tear or traumatic meniscus injury: a systematic review for the OPTIKNEE consensus

• What tests should be used to assess functional performance in youth and young adults following anterior cruciate ligament or meniscal injury? A systematic review of measurement properties for the OPTIKNEE consensus

• Measurement properties for muscle strength tests following anterior cruciate ligament and/or meniscus injury: What tests to use and where do we need to go? A systematic review with meta-analyses for the OPTIKNEE consensus

• Rehabilitation after anterior cruciate ligament and meniscal injuries: a best-evidence synthesis of systematic reviews for the OPTIKNEE consensus
   

• OPTIKNEE 2022: consensus recommendations to optimise knee health after traumatic knee injury to prevent osteoarthritis