Effects of pulsed therapeutic ultrasound on the treatment of people with knee osteoarthritis.
Eliana-Isabel Rodríguez-Grande, Jose-Luis Osma-Rueda, Yannely Serrano-Villar and 1 others
PMID 28932004WHAT IT FOUND
In 17 people with knee osteoarthritis, ten sessions of pulsed ultrasound were followed by less pain and a longer six-minute walk.
No control group and analgesic use in 11 participants, so ultrasound alone may not explain the changes.
Key findings
01Pain at rest and pain on palpation decreased after five and ten pulsed ultrasound sessions.
02Six-minute walk distance increased from baseline to after ten sessions.
03Quadriceps strength increased, but knee mobility did not change and the authors reported no quality-of-life change.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study had only 17 participants and no control group, so it cannot show what would have happened without ultrasound. The paper does not describe random allocation or blinding. Eleven of 17 participants were taking analgesics at baseline, and the results do not describe how analgesic use changed. Only the most compromised knee was analysed in people with bilateral knee osteoarthritis. Follow-up was only one day after the tenth session, so longer-term effects are unknown. The authors reported no change in quality of life, while the table shows significant increases in some quality-of-life domains, so the quality-of-life finding is unclear. The authors note that age-related comorbidities could bias the observed results.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that pulsed ultrasound caused the pain and walking improvements. The study had no control group, only 17 participants, and 11 participants were taking analgesics at baseline, so the paper cannot show that ultrasound alone caused the changes.