Effectiveness of Radial Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis

Summary

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease characterized by unsuccessful repair of joint damage resulting from stresses in any of the synovial joint tissues. Symptoms include pain (initially only after movement), joint stiffness, limitation of joint movement, feeling of insecurity in the joint, and difficulty walking. The diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis can be easily made with a detailed history and a comprehensive physical examination. Radiographic examinations are used to support clinical findings and exclude other possible pathologies. The main purpose of treating knee osteoarthritis is to reduce pain and make daily life easier. Since there is no standard treatment method, the patient's treatment must be individualized by taking into account age, comorbidity, severity of the clinical picture, patient preferences and cost of treatment. Conservative treatment includes pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment, and the optimal treatment should be applied as a combination of these two methods. Patient education, lifestyle modification, exercise, different physical therapy modalities (TENS, Interferential current, ESWT...), acupuncture are some non-pharmacological methods.

Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT), which is considered within the scope of conservative treatment, started in the seventies with the practice of breaking ureteric stones and has become one of the physical therapy modalities used in the treatment of various musculoskeletal diseases. Considering the historical development of ESWT, it has started to be used as a therapeutic modality in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis in recent years. The process, which started with animal experiments, continued with human studies, and evidence is presented that ESWT reduces knee pain and contributes to functionality. It is noteworthy that there are few studies and their short follow-up periods. In the light of these studies, it was planned to investigate the effectiveness of ESWT treatment, which will be applied together with exercise, on pain, functionality and walking distance in individuals diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis, in comparison with the control group receiving sham ESWT.

Conditions

• Knee Osteoarthritis

Interventions

DEVICE

ESWT

All patients in both groups will be applied with a home-based exercise program around for 30-minutes per day for four weeks. The exercises that mentioned in the research content are knee range of motion and strengthening exercises for the knee. It will be checked by phone on a weekly basis. Also, each patient in group 1 will receive shockwaves of continuous frequency and intensity (1000 shocks, 2.0 to 3.0 bar,10 Hz and 0.08-0.25mJ/mm2 energy range), while the second group of patients will receive sham-ESWT. ESWT application will be applied to the medial part of the knee area on the side where the pain is described, or at the patellofemoral and tibiofemoral borders of the affected knee, and will be given in four sessions in total once a week.

DEVICE

Sham-ESWT

Sham ESWT application will be set to 1000 pulses, 2-3 bar pressure, 10 Hz frequency and 0 mJ/mm2 energy to be sham.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Ankara University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Birkan Sonel Tur, Prof · Ankara University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

50 Years

Max Age

85 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-01-01

Primary Completion

2025-09-15

Completion

2025-11-01

Countries

• Turkey (Türkiye)

Study Locations