Trial reportThe New England journal of medicine2025
A Randomized Trial of Physical Therapy for Meniscal Tear and Knee Pain.
Trial report in The New England journal of medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03059004 (Treatment of Meniscal Problems in Osteoarthritis), which is not on this map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Treatment of Meniscal Problems in Osteoarthritis
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Progressive Achilles Loading via Clinician e-Support (PACE): Protocol for a Dual-Site Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- The ageing meniscus: Pathophysiology, epidemiology and management.Journal of experimental orthopaedics · 2026Article
- How Do Open-Ended Interview and Closed-Ended Questionnaire Responses Compare? A Matched Mixed-Methods Study Examining Treatment Attitudes of Patients With Meniscal Tear and Persistent Pain.ACR open rheumatology · 2026Article
- Will patients with meniscal tear who continue to experience pain following a course of Physical Therapy (PT) enroll in a trial comparing further nonoperative therapy with surgery? a qualitative study.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2026Article
- Non-Pharmacological Complementary and Alternative Therapies for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Scoping Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.Journal of pain research · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
32 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPhysical therapy is routinely recommended for knee pain attributed to a degenerative meniscal tear, but its efficacy has not been established.
methodsWe randomly assigned participants 45 to 85 years of age with knee pain, osteoarthritis, and meniscal tear to one of four groups: home exercise (3-month home-exercise program), home exercise plus text messages to encourage exercise adherence, home exercise plus text messages plus sham physical therapy (in-clinic sham manual therapy and sham ultrasound therapy), and home exercise plus text messages plus standard physical therapy (supervised strengthening, functional, and stretching exercises and manual therapy). The primary outcome was the change in the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) pain subscore (range, 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more pain) between baseline and 3 months, with adjustment for trial site, baseline KOOS pain subscore, and radiographic grade.
resultsA total of 879 participants underwent randomization (mean [±SD] age, 59.2±7.8 years). The difference in the 3-month change in the KOOS pain subscore between home exercise and home exercise plus text messages was -0.1 points (98.3% confidence interval [CI], -3.8 to 3.7) and between home exercise and home exercise plus text messages plus standard physical therapy was 2.5 points (98.3% CI, -1.3 to 6.2); the difference between home exercise plus text messages and home exercise plus text messages plus standard physical therapy was 2.5 points (98.3% CI, -1.4 to 6.5). Adverse events were generally nonserious and evenly distributed overall across groups.
conclusionsFor patients with degenerative meniscal tear and knee pain, the addition of physical therapy or text messages to encourage adherence to home exercises was not superior in reducing pain to a home-exercise program alone. (Funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and others; TeMPO ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03059004.).
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