Long-Term Pain Control for Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis

Guidelines for managing pain in knee osteoarthritis are wide-ranging and focus mostly on short-term outcomes. Researchers conducted this network meta-analysis to evaluate long-term pain control, with physical functioning as a secondary outcome. They assessed 47 randomized controlled trials (22,000 total patients) with durations of 1 to 4 years in which 33 different pharmacological interventions (including analgesics, antioxidants, bone-acting agents, intra-articular injections, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs [NSAIDs], slow-acting symptomatic agents, and putative disease-modifying agents) were evaluated.

Statistically significant improvements in long-term pain control were found for only two agents: celecoxib and glucosamine sulfate. Ho…