Lim WB, Al-Dadah O. Conservative treatment of knee osteoarthritis: A review of the literature. World J Orthop 2022; 13(3): 212-229 [PMID: 35317254 DOI: 10.5312/wjo.v13.i3.212]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Wei Boon Lim, Medical School, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle NE2 4HH, United Kingdom. w.lim@newcastle.ac.uk
Research Domain of This Article
Orthopedics
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Orthop. Mar 18, 2022; 13(3): 212-229 Published online Mar 18, 2022. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v13.i3.212
Conservative treatment of knee osteoarthritis: A review of the literature
Wei Boon Lim, Oday Al-Dadah
Wei Boon Lim, The Medical School, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE2 4HH, United Kingdom
Oday Al-Dadah, Department of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, South Tyneside District Hospital, South Tyneside NE34 0PL, United Kingdom
Oday Al-Dadah, Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE2 4HH, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Lim WB contributed to the literature reviewing, writing and editing of the manuscript; Al-Dadah O conceived the original idea and design of the study and extensively revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content. All of the authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript as submitted.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wei Boon Lim, Medical School, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle NE2 4HH, United Kingdom. w.lim@newcastle.ac.uk
Received: March 24, 2021 Peer-review started: March 29, 2021 First decision: June 16, 2021 Revised: June 29, 2021 Accepted: January 29, 2022 Article in press: January 29, 2022 Published online: March 18, 2022
Abstract
Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a common chronic debilitating disease with an estimated prevalence of 23.9% in the general adult population. The condition is characterised by joint pain, functional impairment and significant reduction in quality of life. Management for KOA can generally be divided into conservative (non-operative) and surgical (operative) measures. Conservative management broadly compromises pharmacological and non-pharmacological options and is conventionally the first line treatment to avoid or delay the need for surgical management. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the current recommendations, efficacy and safety profile of different conservative treatments through a review of the literature.
Core Tip: Conservative management is conventionally used as the first line treatment to avoid or delay the need for surgical management in knee osteoarthritis. However, it remains under-utilised and recommendations of different conservative management options can vary greatly among different international guidelines. Hence, this study aims to provide an overview of the current recommendations, efficacy and safety profile of different conservative management options so as to better understand the value of each treatment option.
