Comparison the effects of intra-articular hyaluronic acid (HA; ARTZ) and transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) in the treatment of patients with knee osteoarthritis

Comparison of intra-articular hyaluronic acid injections with transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation for the management of knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled trial.

Article specifications

This clinical trial was published in 2013 in Journal of Adv Ther. (IF 2015:3.58) by Taiwan specialists. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of intra-articular hyaluronic acid (HA; ARTZ) and transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) in the treatment of patients with knee osteoarthritis. Patients with knee osteoarthritis (N=50; aged 51-80y) were randomly assigned to the HA group (n=27) or the TENS group (n=23). The primary outcome measures used were the visual analog scale (VAS) for pain and the Lequesne index.

 

Result

The results of this study showed that the TENS group exhibited a significantly greater improvement in VAS than the HA group at 2 weeks' follow-up. TENS with silver spike point electrodes was observed to be more effective than intra-articular HA injection for patients with knee osteoarthritis in improving the VAS for pain at 2 weeks' follow-up as well as the Lequesne index at 2 weeks' and 3 months' follow-up.