Physical Therapy Is First-Line Treatment for Knee Osteoarthritis and Meniscal Tears

Patients with chronic knee pain and apparent osteoarthritis (OA) often are offered intra-articular steroid injections, and patients with both OA and evidence of meniscal tears often are referred for arthroscopic partial meniscectomy. Physical therapy (PT) can be effective for these conditions, but patients sometimes are unwilling or unable to complete a course of PT and might gravitate toward more-invasive options.

In one study, researchers randomized 156 patients (mean age, 56) with clinical and radiographic evidence of knee OA to receive either one to three intra-articular steroid injections (mean, 2.6 injections) or one to three brief rounds of PT (mean, 12 sessions). At 1 year, patients in both groups had improved, from a mean baseline s…