The results of this review are limited to short-term effects. Only five of the studies we included also assessed longterm effects (after 6 months or one year) (Deyle et al 2000, Ettinger et al 1997, Huang et al 2005, Hughes et al 2006, van Baar et al 1998). Four of these studies found effects fading to some extent in the long term, while one study (Huang et al 2005) found

results persisting to the end of the one-year follow-up period. It is always a challenge to maintain effects in the long term, but we do not know which treatment method offers the most buy KU-55933 sustainable results. Well-designed self-management programs and/or booster sessions (Pisters et al 2007) may help patients keep up exercising and remain active. We agree with the recommendation that patients with osteoarthritis of the knee should be encouraged to undertake and continue to undertake regular aerobic, muscle strengthening, and range of motion exercises (Zhang et al 2008). The effect size of exercise with additional manual mobilisation on pain was significantly

higher than that of exercise therapy alone. Since our review provides only an indirect comparison between the different treatment types, it is not selleck products possible to conclude with certainty which treatment program is superior. We were unable to find any study that directly compared these intervention types. There has been one trial that compared a home exercise program with exercise plus additional manual mobilisation (Deyle et al 2005) and concluded that manual therapy combined with supervised exercise offers greater symptomatic relief.

For osteoarthritis of the hip, it was found that manual therapy (focusing on traction, Oxalosuccinic acid or manipulation, and stretching) resulted in greater improvement in terms of pain and physical function than exercise (which focused on exercise strength and range of motion) (Hoeksma et al 2004). Two new trials are currently planning to investigate the effectiveness of physiotherapy programs that incorporate exercise and manual therapy for the management of pain and disability in adults with osteoarthritis of the hip or knee (Abbott et al 2009, French et al 2009). Despite the limitations of the review, it suggests that additional manual mobilisations may have significantly better effects compared to exercise alone in terms of pain relief. The manual mobilisation techniques used in two studies (Deyle et al 2000, van Baar et al 1998) involved muscle stretching exercises (Evjenth and Hamberg 1988) and passive physiologic and accessory joint movements and soft tissue mobilisation (Maitland 1991, Mink et al 1983) to diminish pain and improve range of motion. From a biomedical perspective, it seems reasonable that manual techniques could be useful especially for pain because the oscillations (eg, in traction degrees I and II) are intended to induce pain inhibition.