Riassunto dello studio

A total of 229 joints in 133 patients with clinical osteoarthritis of the hand/finger and knee joints were randomly assigned to receive either standard dose radiotherapy (total dose 3.0Gy, 0.5Gy twice weekly; n=110) or experimental low-dose radiotherapy (total dose 0.3Gy, 0.05Gy twice weekly; n=111). The primary outcome of interest was pain relief as measured by visual analog scale (VAS) scores. Secondary outcomes included functional scores (using the KOOS-PS for the knee and SF-SACRAH for the hand) and quality of life scores using the SF-12. Outcomes were assessed after a mean follow-up of 12.5 months. Overall, the study found that both treatment arms showed favorable pain relief, with no significant differences observed between them in terms of pain, functional scores and quality of life assessments. This means that radiotherapy can be regarded as an acceptable method to achieve pain relief in the majority of osteoarthritis patients without side effects.