Blood Flow Restriction in Strength Training for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70577/e0z6jq57Keywords:
Knee Osteoarthritis; Blood Flow Restriction Therapy; Strength Training; Muscle Strength; Exercise Therapy.Abstract
El resumen debe contener un máximo de 250 palabras y un mínimo de 220 palabras, el contenido debe estar compuesto de: introducción, objetivo, metodología, resultados, conclusión general.
Knee osteoarthritis causes pain, muscle weakness, and functional limitations, while the high loads required to stimulate strength and hypertrophy may be difficult to tolerate; therefore, low-load training with blood flow restriction is proposed as an alternative with lower mechanical demands. The objective was to compare its effectiveness and safety against conventional high-load training in adults with knee osteoarthritis. A systematic review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA 2020 and PRISMA-S, using searches in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO, and Google Scholar. Ten randomized clinical trials conducted between 2021 and July 2026 were included. The evidence was organized according to primary and secondary comparators; a narrative synthesis was performed, and the risk of bias was assessed using RoB 2 and Jadad. Low-load restricted training produced strength gains comparable to or greater than those of high-load training in several trials, along with reductions in pain and inconsistent functional improvements; compared with low-load, and other comparators; tolerability was generally favorable, and dropouts due to pain were concentrated in some high-load groups; although one case of deep vein thrombosis was documented with the restricted regimen, no study achieved a low overall risk, and two were classified as high risk. In conclusion, this intervention represents a promising alternative for patients with limited tolerance for high loads, although it does not demonstrate overall superiority or universal safety; therefore, it requires individualized pressure settings, vascular screening, monitoring, and multicenter trials with long-term follow-up.
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