Revolutionizing Osteoarthritis Management: The Role of Personalized Gait Retraining

Knee osteoarthritis is challenging clinicians and patients alike, as teams are balancing day‑to‑day pain relief and function while actively managing biomechanical load on the joint. Personalized gait retraining is emerging as one option within that balance, aiming to relieve symptoms without increasing medial compartment stress.

Personalized assessments are becoming central to osteoarthritis care. By tailoring interventions to biomechanical and symptomatic profiles, clinicians can individualize gait cues and targets; programs are being designed to match the person rather than the protocol.

Because much of this literature is evolving, it is prudent to frame such coverage as preliminary: emerging reports suggest promise, but the news item above summarizes ongoing work rather than serving as definitive evidence.

A 2025 systematic review of gait retraining in knee osteoarthritis reports improvements on validated pain and function scales alongside reductions in surrogate biomechanical markers such as the external knee adduction moment.

Technology is helping translate mechanism into practice; for example, a randomized trial using wearable biofeedback taught patients to adjust step width and foot progression to reduce the external knee adduction moment, providing real‑time cues that reinforce safer loading.

Together, the review findings and biofeedback trial above point to a shared pathway: by coaching changes that lower the external knee adduction moment, patients often experience less medial knee loading alongside improvements in daily function—connecting mechanism to meaningful outcomes.

Accordingly, gait retraining is best viewed as an adjunctive, biomechanically targeted option that complements core first‑line therapies such as exercise, education, and weight management, rather than displacing them.

Limitations and risks deserve attention. Not all patients will respond, and over‑correction can shift load laterally or stress the hip and ankle. Comorbidities, balance concerns, and footwear constraints may narrow the range of safe cues. Clinicians should monitor symptoms, adjust one variable at a time, and integrate gait work with strengthening and weight management to distribute loads more evenly.

Equity and access also matter. Wearable biofeedback is not universally available; where resources are limited, simple verbal or visual cues and mirror feedback can approximate many benefits while maintaining safety and engagement.