The role of trigger point therapy in knee osteoarthritis

Trigger Point Injections for Chronic Non-Malignant Musculoskeletal Pain: A Systematic Review

“…It was unclear from the study methods how withdrawals and dropouts were handled and whether randomization or allocation concealment was adequate. Two studies [31,33] had good external validity. The third study [43] was of moderate quality, largely due to an extremely short follow‐up period and deficiencies in the reporting of baseline patient parameters and adverse events.…”

“…Yentür et al. [33] showed that intra‐articular injection combined with lidocaine TPI of any of 15 leg muscle trigger points was more effective than intra‐articular injection alone in relieving pain and improving knee function in a highly selected group of older patients with knee osteoarthritis.…”

“…Details of the excluded studies are available from the corresponding author. In six studies, the data presentation pre-cluded calculation of the WMD [28][29][30][31][32][33]. Ten of the 15 studies had very small sample sizes, with less than 20 patients in each study arm.…”

“…The remaining three RCTs [31,33,43] had moderate internal validity. It was unclear from the study methods how withdrawals and dropouts were handled and whether randomization or allocation concealment was adequate.…”

Topical and Regional Treatment for Osteoarthritis

“…The efficacy of TPI as a treatment for osteoarthritis is not well described; and as most studies have looked at its role as a sole treatment rather than in the adjunct capacity in which it is routinely used in clinical practice, its effectiveness might be underestimated. One study showed that intra-articular injection combined with lidocaine TPI of any of the 15 leg muscle trigger points was more effective than intra-articular injection alone in relieving pain and improving knee function in a highly selected group of older patients with knee osteoarthritis (116). Except for the rare occurrence of muscle atrophy at the injection site, very few adverse events are reported with TPI and it is currently recommended as an adjunct therapy in osteoarthritis.…”