Purpose

Nearly one out of every two Americans will develop knee osteoarthritis by age 85. Over 20 million Americans, including nearly three million Veterans, currently have painful knee arthritis that limits their daily activity or recreation. The vast majority of those individuals will be prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs that provide some pain relief but do not slow the progression of the disease. Often people with knee arthritis are told they must live with the pain until they become appropriate candidates for knee replacement surgery, but that can require tolerating the pain and limiting function for many years. Because of other health issues, some individuals are never acceptable surgery candidates. What is desperately needed are better conservative approaches for treating these patients. Two such approaches will be tested and compared in this study.