Efficacy of Specified Manual Therapies in Combination with a Supervised Exercise Protocol for Managing Pain Intensity and Functional Disability in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis

PURPOSE: The current study aimed to determine the efficacy of specified manual therapies in combination with a supervised exercise protocol for managing pain intensity and functional disability in patients with knee osteoarthritis. METHODS: The study was based on a two-arm parallel-group randomized controlled trial design, including a total of 32 participants with knee osteoarthritis randomly divided into groups A and B. Group A received a supervised exercise protocol; however, group B received specified manual therapies in combination with a supervised exercise protocol. Pain and functional disability were measured with the numeric pain rating scale (NPRS) and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), respectively. Data were collected at baseline (pre-intervention), 2 weeks, and 4 weeks post-intervention. To evaluate the efficacy of specific manual therapies with supervised exercise compared to supervised exercise alone, an unpaired t-test and repeated measures ANOVA were used to analyze the data, keeping the level of significance at p<0.05. RESULTS: A significant (p<0.05) mean difference (∆MD) was found within group A and group B for both outcomes when we compared their baseline scores with 2-week (group A, NPRS: ∆MD=−1.56 and WOMAC: ∆MD=14.94; group B, NPRS: ∆MD=2.06 and WOMAC: ∆MD=22.19) and 4-week post-intervention scores (group A, NPRS: ∆MD=0.62 and WOMAC: ∆MD=6.75; group B, NPRS: ∆MD=0.75 and WOMAC: ∆MD=11.12). In addition, significant mean differences (p<0.05) reported for both outcomes when we compared their scores between groups A and B at 2 weeks (∆MD: NPRS=0.69; WOMAC=10.87) and 4 weeks post-intervention (∆MD: NPRS=0.31; WOMAC=8.00). Furthermore, a post hoc Scheffe analysis for the outcomes NPRS and WOMAC revealed the superiority of group B over group A. CONCLUSION: The specified manual therapies, in combination with a supervised exercise protocol, were found to be more effective than a supervised exercise protocol alone for improving pain and functional disability in patients with knee osteoarthritis.