The efficacy of non-surgical treatment on pain and sensitization in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a pre-defined ancillary analysis from a randomized controlled trial

A non-surgical treatment program is more efficacious in reducing pain-related measures than usual care, while both are equally efficacious in reducing sensitization, indicating that mechanisms other than pain sensitization contribute to the perceived pain. The patients did not have severe symptomatic knee OA and hence pain sensitization may not yet have developed into a clinically relevant parameter or subgroups with less sensitization may exist.