The effect of the thermal mineral water of Nagybaracska on patients with knee joint osteoarthritis—a double blind study

Abstract

To study the effect of thermal mineral water of Nagybaracska (Hungary) on patients with primary knee osteoarthritis in a randomized, double-blind clinical trial, 64 patients with nonsurgical knee joint osteoarthritis were randomly selected either into the thermal mineral water or into the tap water group in a non-spa resort village. The patients of both groups received 30-min sessions of bathing, 5 days a week for four consecutive weeks. The patients were evaluated by a blind observer immediately before and at the end of the trial using Western Ontario and McMaster Osteoarthritis (WOMAC) indices and follow-up assessment 3 months later. Twenty-seven patients of the 32 patients who received thermal mineral water and 25 of the 32 of those treated with tap water completed the trial. The WOMAC activity, pain, and total scores improved significantly in the thermal mineral-water-treated group. The improvement remained also at the end of the 3-month follow-up. The WOMAC activity, pain, and total scores improved significantly also in the tap water group at the end of the treatment course, but no improvement was detected at the end of the 3-month follow-up period. The treatment with the thermal mineral water of Nagybaracska significantly improved activity, pain, and total WOMAC scores of patients with nonsurgical OA of the knee. Even after 3 months, significant improvement was observed compared to the scores before the treatment or to tap water treatment.

Balneotherapy in the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Controlled Study

“…Pain relief is a common finding in many observational 7,18,22,23 and randomized controlled studies. [24][25][26][27][28] Our study is also in accordance with previous balneotherapy studies in terms of improved clinical criteria such as pain, functional outcome, and walking speed. 16,26,28 Improved WOMAC scores were also similar with other studies.…”

“…In our study, W-TSS improved in both groups, but there was no significant difference between the two groups. Nevertheless, results of Bálint et al 27 did not make a contribution to our findings since they did not compare the results of the groups.…”

“…16,26,28 Improved WOMAC scores were also similar with other studies. 29,30 On the other hand, Bálint et al 27 reported that the W-TSS did not improve and concluded that this was a result of the insensitivity of W-TSS to change. In our study, W-TSS improved in both groups, but there was no significant difference between the two groups.…”

Efectos de la Peloterapia en pacientes con osteoartritis de rodilla. Un ensayo clínico aleatorio controlado

“…Currently studies such as Pnevmatikatos et al 6 116 the therapeutic effect of the mud-packs in different thermal centres. With the need to know whether its application is more effective than other treatment techniques, some studies have carried out comparisons between the effects of mud-pack treatment and other techniques, like pharmacological therapy 12-25-34 or magnetic fields [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] . Others, like this present study, compare an intervention group with a control group 13-21-40 .…”

“…Further studies affirm its influence on antioxidant reactions inhibiting free radicals [18][19] . Diverse studies have analysed the effectiveness of mud-packs on knee osteoarthritis (OA) showing improvements on perceived pain, functional capacity or quality of life [20][21][22][23][24][25][26] . An increase in an active ageing population 27 has led to a high prevalence in disability through osteoarticular conditions 28 .…”