Chalidis Byron, Papadopoulos Pericles, Givissis Panagiotis, Pitsilos Charalampos
1st Orthopaedic Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 57010 Thessaloniki, Greece.
2nd Orthopaedic Department, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54635 Thessaloniki, Greece.
J Pers Med. 2023 Aug 3;13(8):1227. doi: 10.3390/jpm13081227.
The radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is considered a valid, minimally invasive treatment modality for the management of symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA). The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of RFA with that of commonly used intra-articular injections for the persistent knee pain due to OA. Medline/Pubmed and Scopus databases were systematically searched up to April 2023 to identify studies comparing the effect of RFA and intra-articular injections (IAIs) on knee OA. Nine studies including 899 patients fulfilled the eligibility criteria and were included in the systematic review. The RFA procedure was related with improved knee pain relief compared to IAIs at 3-, 6- and 12-month follow-up ( < 0.001). Similarly, functional improvement was greater in RFA treatment than that observed after hyaluronic acid (HA), steroid or platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections (Visual Analogue Scale < 0.001, Numeric Rating Scale = 0.019, Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index = 0.012). The overall procedural complication rate of RFA was 10.2% and was higher than steroid ( = 0.023) and PRP ( = 0.017) injections. However, no severe adverse events were reported. For patients with symptomatic knee OA, RFA seems to be more effective than IAIs in alleviating pain and improving joint function, despite the relatively higher incidence of non-serious adverse events. However, due to the limited number of studies and patients, this result should be interpreted with caution and not be generalized to the entire knee OA population.
射频消融术（RFA）被认为是一种治疗症状性膝关节骨关节炎（OA）的有效、微创治疗方式。本研究的目的是比较RFA与常用关节内注射治疗OA所致持续性膝关节疼痛的疗效。系统检索了截至2023年4月的Medline/Pubmed和Scopus数据库，以确定比较RFA和关节内注射（IAIs）对膝关节OA疗效的研究。9项研究共899例患者符合纳入标准并被纳入系统评价。在3个月、6个月和12个月的随访中，与IAIs相比，RFA手术在缓解膝关节疼痛方面效果更好（<0.001）。同样，RFA治疗后的功能改善也大于透明质酸（HA）、类固醇或富血小板血浆（PRP）注射后的改善（视觉模拟评分<0.001，数字评分量表=0.019，西安大略和麦克马斯特大学骨关节炎指数=0.012）。RFA的总体手术并发症发生率为10.2%，高于类固醇注射（=0.023）和PRP注射（=0.017）。然而，未报告严重不良事件。对于有症状的膝关节OA患者，尽管非严重不良事件的发生率相对较高，但RFA在缓解疼痛和改善关节功能方面似乎比IAIs更有效。然而，由于研究和患者数量有限，这一结果应谨慎解读，不应推广至整个膝关节OA人群。
