Objective: the aim of this article was to assess the statistical date reported in the literature regarding

Introduction: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a progressive degenerative disease. The KOA has been categorized under primary (idiopathic in origin) and secondary; the clinical manifestations include joint tenderness, pain, inflammation (varying degrees), crepitus and limited motion. Clinical guidelines recommend that relieving pain in the knee is a primary target of KOA treatment and Manual Therapy (MT) is considered a first-line treatment option.

Method: to this end, we searched the current literature for relevant studies, without over employing a specific methodological criterion for identifying and analyzing the literature.

Results: the Zhu and coll. meta-analysis showed that MT was superior to usual care (SMD=2.04, 95% CI 0.94, 3.14, I 2=96.3%; low evidence quality) and exercise (SMD=1.56, 95% CI 0.41, 2.71, I 2=96.3%; low evidence quality) for reducing pain. In terms of improvement in VAS scores, MT treatment beyond 4 weeks (SMD=1.56, 95% CI 0.41, 2.71, I 2=96.3%) may be superior to treatments less than or equal to 4 weeks (SMD=1.24, 95% CI 0.56, 1.95, I 2=94.7%).

Conclusion: MT may be effective at reducing pain in patients with KOA and may be more effective after a 4-week treatment period. Compared with usual care and exercise therapy, MT may be superior at reducing KOA pain in the short term.