A Review of the Role of Manual Therapy in the Treatment of Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis

Abstract

Background:

One of the most destructive forms of arthritis is knee osteoarthritis (KOA) that leads to disability because of pain in elderly individuals and also increases utilization of health care among them. Through improving local circulation and joint flexibility, and relaxation of muscles, massage therapy is capable of relieving painful musculoskeletal conditions. Therefore, it may be beneficial for treatment of KOA. Moreover, the successfulness of exercise therapy in treatment of KOA broadly is proved and required to be reviewed more. Through a comprehensive review, the present study is aimed to investigate the role of massage therapy on knee osteoarthritis.

Method:

A literature search was carried out using the five most well-known databases of Europe PubMed, PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar from 2010 to 2020. All the articles were searched in English with the main subject of massage therapy on knee osteoarthritis. During the search from all 284 searched, articles 189 deleted due to the subject similarity and finally, 82 article were chosen to be included in the research inclusion criteria.

Results:

Manual therapy is an effective treatment option in the management of KOA patients. It could be used alone or in combination with other available types of therapies.

Conclusion:

The present study provides a general set of information about manual therapy and its effectiveness in the management of KOA patients.