• Qinguang Xu, Bei Chen, Yueyi Wang, Xuezong Wang, Dapeng Han, Daofang Ding, Yuxin Zheng, Yuelong Cao, Hongsheng Zhan, and Yao Zhou.
• Institute of Arthritis Research, Shanghai Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Guanghua Integrative Medicine Hospital/Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China; Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Fenghua Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ningbo, China.
• Pain Physician. 2017 May 1; 20 (4): 229-243.

BackgroundKnee osteoarthritis (KOA) is the most common form of arthritis, leading to pain disability in seniors and increased health care utilization. Manual therapy is one widely used physical treatment for KOA.ObjectiveTo evaluate the effectiveness and adverse events (AEs) of manual therapy compared to other treatments for relieving pain, stiffness, and physical dysfunction in patients with KOA.Study DesignA systematic review and meta-analysis of manual therapy for KOA.MethodsWe searched PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and Chinese databases for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of manual therapy for patients with KOA from the inception to October 2015 without language restrictions. RCTs compared manual therapy to the placebo or other interventional control with an appropriate description of randomization. Two reviewers independently conducted the search results identification, data extraction, and methodological quality assessment. The methodological quality was assessed by PEDro scale. Pooled data was expressed as standard mean difference (SMD), with 95% confident intervals (CIs) in a random effects model. The meta-analysis of manual therapy for KOA on pain, stiffness, and physical function were conducted.ResultsFourteen studies involving 841 KOA participants compared to other treatments were included. The methodological quality of most included RCTs was poor. The mean PEDro scale score was 6.6. The meta-analyses results showed that manual therapy had statistically significant effects on relieving pain (standardized mean difference, SMD = -0.61, 95% CI -0.95 to -0.28, P = 76%), stiffness (SMD = -0.58, 95% CI -0.95 to -0.21, P = 81%), improving physical function (SMD = -0.49, 95% CI -0.76 to -0.22, P = 65%), and total score (SMD = -0.56, 95% CI -0.78 to -0.35, P = 50%). But in the subgroups, manual therapy did not show significant improvements on stiffness and physical function when treatment duration was less than 4 weeks. And the long-term information for manual therapy was insufficient.LimitationsThe limitations of this systematic review include the paucity of literature and inevitable heterogeneity between included studies.ConclusionThe preliminary evidence from our study suggests that manual therapy might be effective and safe for improving pain, stiffness, and physical function in KOA patients and could be treated as complementary and alternative options. However, the evidence may be limited by potential bias and poor methodological quality of included studies. High-quality RCTs with long-term follow-up are warranted to confirm our findings.Key words: Knee osteoarthritis, manual therapy, systematic review.

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