Research news: Chronic Knee Pain: Is Surgery The Only Solution?

The News:
Chronic Knee Pain: Is Surgery The Only Solution?
ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2007) — The results of a study published in the online open access journal, BMC Medicine indicate that sufferers of chronic patellofemoral syndrome (PFPS), a chronic pain in the front part of the knee, gain no extra benefit from surgery. Furthermore, the authors suggest that giving these patients a therapeutic exercise regime rather than putting them through surgery could save money.
Patellofemoral pain syndrome is often treated with arthroscopic surgery, in which equipment inserted through small incisions in the knee is used to both diagnose the cause of the problem and attempt to fix it.
Jyrki Kettunen of The ORTON Research Institute, in Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues point out that whilst chronic knee pain is a common complaint, there is a lack of evidence that arthroscopic surgery has a better outcome than other forms of treatment including therapeutic exercise.
The team conducted a randomized controlled trial to study the efficacy of arthroscopy compared with exercise in 56 patients with chronic PFPS. More.....

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal BMC Medicine.