What is the evidence for mud pack therapy in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee?
AMSTAR Rating
Summary
Patient Population:
No information was provided on the patient population.
Intervention:
Mud pack therapy. There was variation in temperature and length of application per session reported ranging from 47 deg Celsius for 20 minutes (1 study), 46 deg for 15-20 minutes (1 study), 45 deg for 30 min (2 studies) or 42 deg for 15-20 minutes (3 studies). Therapy was most often conducted daily. Length of treatment varied ranging from 6 days to 4 week.
Comparison:
Mud pack therapy was compared to placebo groups and balneotherapy. The authors do not report the results of any statistical comparison between groups. There were 20 articles identified for inclusion in the present review. In the discussion, the authors mention that some of the studies in this review had a high risk of bias – but there is no presentation of the results of their quality assessment.
Outcome:
- Pain: large variation between control/comparison groups, in one study mud pack therapy vs. depleted mud showed a reduction in pain associated with mud therapy (no statistical information was provided to corroborate that point).
- Function: mud pack therapy vs. “daily pharmacological therapy” – improvement associated with mud pack therapy (no statistical information was provided).
