A study looking into the two main treatments for knee arthritis have found that over the long term, physiotherapy is more likely to provide long term relief for the same price as steroid injections.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, evaluated the treatment paths of 156 adults part of a clinical trial, studying the length of treatment and how many treatments were needed to provide the same amount of pain relief and mobility.
Outside of knee surgery, which can have a lengthy recovery time, people suffering from arthritis of the knee often have a choice to make with their treatment, and whilst a steroid injection does provide very quick relief from pain and swelling, it may not necessarily help with the cause of this pain.
Physiotherapy is built around strengthening the knee and muscles that support it, which means a longer-lasting benefit and a lower likelihood of needing further treatment or surgery.
Interestingly, despite a common treatment being to use a steroid injection to help reduce acute pain to allow physiotherapy to take place, the study suggested that it did not improve outcomes relative to undergoing physiotherapy alone.
This suggests that whilst injections can provide pain relief, in the long run, it is beneficial to undertake a round of physiotherapy, particularly for any condition which is expected to last more than a year, such as knee arthritis or some complicated conditions where knee strength needs to be built up.
This does not necessarily make steroid injections worse than physiotherapy, particularly for short term conditions where the main aim is to relieve swelling and pain so a patient can return to exercise or physical activity, and in many cases, both are considered and used at the same time.
There is also the limitation of this study that it is based on American health care systems, where every element of care is paid for.
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