Physiotherapy may not help hip osteoarthritis, new study says

Physiotherapy for osteoarthritis of the hip does not appear to relieve pain or increase function any more than sham treatments, says research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A group of 102 adults with hip osteoarthritis were split into two groups. About half were given 10 treatment sessions of physiotherapy over 12 weeks. This involved education and advice, manual therapy, home exercise and gait aid if needed. Those in the other group were given sham treatment which comprised inactive ultrasound and inert gel.
For 24 weeks after treatment, the active group continued unsupervised home exercise while the sham group self-applied gel three times weekly.
The research team measured levels of pain, physical function and performance, psychological status and quality of life.
They found that physiotherapy did not produce greater improvements in pain or function compared with the sham treatment. And the treatment group reported a greater number of adverse events, although they were relatively mild.
“To our surprise, patient outcomes were roughly the same the 13 and 36 week intervals,” explains Prof Kim Bennell. “Among adults with painful hip osteoarthritis, physical therapy did not result in greater improvement in pain or function compared with sham treatment, raising questions about its value for these patients.”
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