During a period of four years, the value of intermittent traction for the symptoms of arthosis of the hip in hospitalized patients was investigated. Two groups of 20 patients each were submitted to traction, either with individually adjusted loading with between 10 and 25 kg or with 5 kg. The two groups were found to be comparable but the therapeutic result as registered by level of pain, walking tempo and joint mobility did not reveal any significant difference in the two therapeutic groups nor where the radiographic changes were less pronounced. It was thus impossible to demonstrate any therapeutic advantage of employing a procedure with individually adjusted traction in arthosis of the hip. The author regards employment of traction with a weight of only 5 kg as placebo treatment.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PubMed
• PDF locator
• publisher