An innovative herbal gel pad for reducing knee joint pain

Abstract

An innovative herbal gel pad for knee joint pain reduction aimed at reducing knee pain among the elderly with primary osteoarthritis in minor knee osteoarthritis stage. The sample included 5 elderly people in Thongchai sub-district, Mueang district, Phetchaburi province. The systematic process of innovation development began with 1) the planning procedure, which reviewed academic documents related to osteoarthritis symptoms and reatments, and herbs for knee joint pain reduction. Then, the acquired data were used in designing the innovation, followed by experiments with 3 elderly people, and one-week monitoring. Feedbacks and recommendations were gathered for innovation improvements. 2) The doing procedure involved the application of improved innovation (herbal gel pad) to the sample whose knee pain was assessed prior to its use. 3) The checking procedure followed up hebal gel pad use after 2 weeks along with assesments of post-treament pain and satisfaction. Lastly, 4) the acting procedure addressed problems encountered during the innovation use for further adjustments and improvements towards more suitability and convenient usability. Therefore, the use of herbal gel pads were recommended as a non-pharmacological treatment option for knee pain reduction of patients with primary osteoarthritis in minor osteoarthritis stage. Apart from being convenient and safe, it could save time and cost of hospital visit for treatments.