Abstract
This article reviews topical management strategies for degenerative osteoarthritis
(OA) of the knee. A search of Pubmed, Embase and the Cochrane library using MeSH terms
including “topical,” “treatment,” “knee” and “osteoarthritis” was carried out. Original
research and review articles on the effectiveness and safety, recommendations from
international published guidelines and acceptability studies of topical preparations
were included. Current topical treatments included for the management of knee OA include
topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, capsaicin, salicylates and physical
treatments such as hot or cold therapy. Current treatment guidelines recommend topical
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as an alternative and even first-line therapy
for OA management, especially among elderly patients. Guidelines on other topical
treatments vary, from recommendations against their use, to in favor as alternative
or simultaneous therapy, especially for patients with contraindications to other analgesics.
Although often well-tolerated and preferred by many patients, clinical care still
lags in the adoption of topical treatments. Aspects of efficacy, safety and patient
quality of life data require further research.
Key Indexing Terms
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 06, 2017
Accepted:
June 19,
2017
Received:
February 7,
2017
Footnotes
☆The authors declared no competing financial interests.
☆☆This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, China (81171859 and 31300137). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
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© 2017 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by All rights reserved.
