Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 12 Randomized Controlled Trials Evaluating the Efficacy of Invasive Radiofrequency Treatment for Knee Pain and Function.

Radiofrequency (RF) treatment is an invasive and promising procedure in the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA). A meta-analysis based on 12 RCT studies was to investigate whether invasive RF treatment is more effective in relieving knee pain and improving knee function. Relevant studies were searched on database of Pubmed, Embase, EBSCO, Cochrane library, Wanfang digital database, VIP database, and CNKI up to January 2018. A total of 841 participants from 12 publications were included. The weighted mean difference (WMD) and the corresponding 95% CIs were used to evaluate the difference in pain scores and OKS/WOMAC scores between RF treatment and control groups. The statistical analysis was performed by Stata 12.0. The pain scores (VAS) in the RF group were lower than those in the conservative treatment group after 1 week (WMD -1.77, 95% CI -2.93 to -0.61, P<0.01), 1 month (WMD -1.40, 95% CI -1.98 to -0.82, P<0.01), and 3 months (WMD -1.32, 95% CI -2.27 to -0.37, P<0.01) of treatment, while there was no significant improvement in knee function. In subgroup analyses by site of radiofrequency, RF mode showed some discrepancies in the WMD of VAS between the treatment and control groups. In addition, subgroup analysis and meta-regression showed that the efficacy of RF treatment for reducing pain is reversely related to female ratio, and we did not find any surgery-related adverse reactions. RF treatment significantly reduces the knee pain, but rarely improves the knee joint function. Radiofrequency ablation has better efficacy than pulsed radiofrequency ablation in reducing pain. Furthermore, subgroup analysis and meta-regression suggested that women are more sensitive to RF treatment than men.