To Investigate the Effect of PEMF for Knee OA Patients

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Status: Completed

Conditions: Knee Osteoarthritis

Treatments: Device: Placebo treatment; Device: PEMF treatment

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05442697

2022.242

Details and patient eligibility

About

Health care costs are increasing alarmingly, which will impose an overwhelming economic burden to an aging society like that of Hong Kong. For example, degenerative musculoskeletal disorders such as osteoarthritis (OA) present a grand challenge with its high prevalence (>40% in the elderly suffered from knee OA). Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis, and around 2 million population worldwide suffer from this disorder. OA is a debilitating progressive disease with typical pathological progress such as cartilage degeneration, inflammation, joint width narrowing and developing osteophytes. The main system of knee OA is acute pain leading to loss of mobility. There is no effective treatment to cure or stop the progression of OA. For now, the main method is to alleviate the pain and symptoms, including control weight, exercise, physical treatment and intake of NSAIDs/ paracetamol.

Pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) treatment has shown to enhance cell activity related to tissue healing, delay bone and cartilage degeneration and give beneficial effects such as relief in pain, anti-inflammation and reduce swelling. In clinic, PEMF treatment has been reported to be safe, and has been proved to reduce the usage of NSAIDs and pain in patients with knee OA.

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of PEMF therapy on for patients with knee OA.

Enrollment: 60 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 50+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Primary osteoarthritis of knee
• VAS score ≥ 4
• Grade 2 and 3 osteoarthritis (Kellgren-Lawrence criteria)
• No alleviation of symptoms after ≥ 3 months of nonsurgical treatment
• No acute knee injuries in both limbs in the past 3 months
• No muscle strain in both limbs in the past 3 months
• Voluntarily agreed to participate and signed the informed consent form

Exclusion criteria

• Skin diseases around the target knee joint
• Severe pain in other areas affects the diagnosis of function and symptoms of knee joints
• Injection in target knee within 3 months of enrolment
• Inflammatory joint disease (e.g., rheumatic inflammation)
• Infectious joint disease (e.g., septic arthritis)
• Pregnant or breastfeeding
• Patient with a pacemaker, an implantable defibrillator, neurosurgical clips, a neurostimulator, cochlear implant, a stent, an insulin pump
• Physical inability to undertake testing procedures
• Inability to give informed consent

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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60 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Mild-to-moderate Knee OA PEMF Treatment

Experimental group

Description:

Patients with Mild-to-moderate Knee OA will accept PEMF treatment

Treatment:

Device: PEMF treatment

Mild-to-moderate Knee OA Placebo Treatment

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Patients with Mild-to-moderate Knee OA will accept placebo treatment

Treatment:

Device: Placebo treatment