The effectiveness of adjunct cryotherapy along with an exercise on somatic symptoms in patients with knee osteoarthritis – a randomized controlled trial

Introduction
Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a common joint condition associated with aging, leading to pain, functional limitations, disability, and reduced quality of life. This clinical randomized controlled trial aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a cryotherapy intervention in combination with a home-based conventional exercise (HBE) program in reducing somatic symptoms in patients with KOA.

Material and methods
Patients diagnosed with KOA were randomly assigned to 2 groups: an experimental group (n = 16) receiving HBE with cryotherapy and a control group (n = 15) receiving HBE alone for 2 months.

Results
The results showed that patients in the HBE with cryotherapy group had significantly lower scores on somatic symptoms (SDS) compared to those in the HBE group (2.00 vs. 4.53; mean difference: –2.53, 95% CI: –4.50 to –0.57) with a large effect size (Cohen’s d: 0.94). Additionally, both the HBE and HBE with cryotherapy groups exhibited a significant decrease in SDS scores, 20.87–4.53 and 18.75–2.00, respectively (p < 0.001).

Conclusions
This study showed that combining HBE with cryotherapy is an effective approach for improving somatic symptoms in patients with KOA.