Total knee more effective than nonsurgical treatment, but risks higher

Editor's Note

Total knee replacement followed by nonsurgical treatment is more effective than nonsurgical treatment alone in providing pain relief and improving function and quality of life, this study finds. However, clinically relevant improvements were seen in both groups, and the surgical patients had a higher number of serious adverse events.

Results showed 85% of surgery patients had significant improvement a year later, compared with 67% of those who received nonsurgical treatment, but serious adverse events were four times as common in surgery patients.

This is the first high-quality, randomized trial to investigate the effectiveness of total knee replacement compared with nonsurgical interventions, the authors say.