Knee osteoarthritis: key treatments and implications for physical therapy

Key Points

1. The core treatment approaches for knee osteoarthritis (OA) rehabilitation include education and self-management strategies, exercise and weight loss.

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BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE

Patient education, exercise, and weight loss (for overweight or obese individuals) constitute first-line treatment approaches for the management of knee osteoarthritis (OA) (1,2). However, less than 40% of patients with knee OA receive these interventions (3). As a result, there is a need for healthcare professionals treating patients with knee OA to understand and implement best practice treatment approaches for these patients.

Therefore, the objective of this masterclass article was to summarize the safest and most efficacious treatment options currently available for patients with knee OA, and to delineate the most traditional outcome measures used in clinical research for knee OA.

Less than 40% of patients with knee osteoarthritis receive evidence-based first-line treatment interventions.

There does not appear to be a superior type of exercise or physical activity for patients with knee OA.

METHODS

Masterclass articles present the latest research findings or developments on a given topic (i.e. key treatments and implications for physical therapists in the management of knee OA) that are important to a given field (i.e. physical therapy). Typically, masterclass articles

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