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Comparative short-term effectiveness of ibuprofen gel and cream phonophoresis in patients with knee osteoarthritis

  • Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
  • Published:
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Abstract

The objective of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of gel and cream ibuprofen phonophoresis in patients with knee osteoarthritis. A single-blinded, randomized, comparative design was applied. Patients diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis according to the American College of Rheumatology criteria were included in the study. After obtaining written informed consent, patients were randomized into ibuprofen gel and cream phonophoresis groups. Each patient was treated five sessions per week for 2 weeks (ten sessions). Main outcome measures were 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain and the disease-specific questionnaire; Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC). Sixty-one knee osteoarthritis patients with a mean age of 57.9 ± 9.7 years were included in the study. Baseline VAS and WOMAC scores were similar between gel (n = 30) and cream (n = 31) phonophoresis groups (p > 0.05 for both). Following the treatment, both groups showed improvement compared to baseline measures including VAS pain and WOMAC scores. In the gel phonophoresis group, the improvement in VAS score was higher than that observed in the cream phonophoresis group (p < 0.001). Similarly, the improvement in WOMAC total score was also higher in the gel phonophoresis group (p < 0.001). Ibuprofen phonophoresis is clinically effective in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Phonophoresis using the gel form of ibuprofen is associated with more clinical improvement than that using the cream form of the same molecule.

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Acknowledgements

We thank physiotherapist Safine Havuc for her valuable contribution to the treatment sessions of phonophoresis.

Funding

The study was funded by the Research Fund of Cukurova University (Project number: TF2014BAP11), which had no involvement in the design, execution, or reporting of the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Cukurova University Faculty of Medicine, Adana, Turkey

    Ilke Coskun Benlidayi & Sibel Basaran

  2. Division of Rheumatology, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Cukurova University Faculty of Medicine, Adana, Turkey

    Neslihan Gokcen

Authors
  1. Ilke Coskun Benlidayi
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  2. Neslihan Gokcen
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  3. Sibel Basaran
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Contributions

ICB: contributed to the conception and design of the study; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; drafting and revising the article; approval of the final version. NG: contributed to the acquisition of data; drafting the article and approval of the final version. SB: contributed to the design of the study; drafting the article and approval of the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ilke Coskun Benlidayi.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Ethical consent was obtained from the Local Ethics Committee of Cukurova University (Date: 23-June-2015, number: 42/8) and approved by the Turkish Ministry of Health.

Animal/human rights statement

All procedures performed in the study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Coskun Benlidayi, I., Gokcen, N. & Basaran, S. Comparative short-term effectiveness of ibuprofen gel and cream phonophoresis in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Rheumatol Int 38, 1927–1932 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-018-4099-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-018-4099-9

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