Abstract: BACKGROUND: Pain is an important sign of meniscus injury and affects the patient’s movement pattern. Studying the influence of pain on the movement pattern of meniscus injury patients is helpful to formulate targeted movement pattern rehabilitation programs.
OBJECTIVE: To explore the influence of pain intensity on the movement pattern of lower limbs in patients with lateral meniscus injury when crossing obstacles;
METHODS: Eight inertial measurement units and constant speed cameras were used to collect the lower limb movement patterns of eighty patients with lateral meniscus injury. The pain intensity was taken as an independent variable and one-way analysis of variance was performed for men and women separately.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The swing phase percentage of the swinging leg, the knee flexion angle of the supporting leg when the toe of the swinging leg is directly above the obstacle, and the hip-knee mean absolute relative phase during the swing phase of the swinging leg in males were increased by an increase in pain intensity in males, so were the swing phase percentage of the swinging and supporting legs and the hip-knee mean absolute relative phase during the stance phase of the swinging leg in females. The leading heel-obstacle distance, the thigh angular velocity during the swing phase were decreased by an increase in pain intensity in males, so were the leading heel-obstacle distance, the knee flexion of the swinging leg when the toe of the swinging leg is directly above the obstacle, and the thigh angular velocity during the stance phase in females. Therefore, increased pain intensity reduces the quality of lower limb movement patterns when crossing obstacles in patients with lateral meniscus injury. When facing with increased pain intensity, males adopt more aggressive coping strategies than females, and females are at a greater risk of falling.

Key words: pain intensity, lateral meniscus injury, crossing obstacle, movement pattern