Feride SABIRLI, Derya BUĞDAYCI, İlhan KARACAN, Nurdan PAKER, Ayşegül KILIÇ, Zozan SONGUR ERARSLAN
İstanbul Medical Journal - 2026;27(3):194-198
Introduction: There is increasing awareness of the existence of neuropathic pain (NP) symptoms in addition to mechanical pain in knee osteoarthritis (OA). The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of physical therapy on NP in women with OA. Methods: Forty-one women with symptomatic OA according to American College of Rheumatology criteria who underwent 15 sessions of physical therapy were included in this retrospective study. Pain severity was evaluated using the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS). PainDETECT was used to assess NP . Those with a PainDETECT score between 13 and 38 were considered to have NP . Patients without NP were classified as group 1, and patients with NP were classified as group 2. The Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) was used to evaluate knee-related conditions. Results: Mean age was 57.8+/-5.9 years. Mean duration of pain was 24 months (median 108) in group 1 and 54 months (median 102) in group 2 (p=0.163). NP was detected in 14 patients (34%). Mean NPRS scores at baseline were 6.0 (3.0) and 10.0 (0.3) in groups 1 and 2, respectively. Mean NPRS scores after treatment were 3.0 (3.0) and 8.0 (2.5) in groups 1 and 2, respectively. The mean NPRS score decreased significantly in both groups (p<0.05). Mean NPRS scores one month later were 2.0 (3.0) and 7.5 (3.0) in groups 1 and 2, respectively (p<0.05). In group 1, a significant improvement was observed in all KOOS domains after treatment and at the 1st-month control (p<0.05). However, significant increases were observed only in the KOOS pain and activities of daily living subgroups of group 2 after treatment (p<0.05). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that NP was a negative predictive factor for improvement in KOOS symptom and quality-of-life subscores after treatment and at the end of the first month (p=0.001, p=0.032). Conclusion: In this study, NP was present in almost 1/3 of OA cases and negatively affected pain relief after physical therapy. Furthermore, NP was a negative predictive factor for improvement in knee-related function and quality of life.
