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THERMARTHROSE: Gonarthrosis and Water Cure

Evaluation of the Effects of a Water Cure on Gonarthrosis: Randomized Clinical Study Including Water Cure Versus Continuation of the Usual Treatment

Status
Completed
Phases
Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT00348777
Enrollment
462
Registered
2006-07-06
Start date
2006-06-30
Completion date
2008-01-31
Last updated
2011-06-22

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Osteoarthritis, Knee, Pain

Keywords

Visual analogic Scale of pain, Womac indice, SF-36 quality of life, Hydrotherapy

Brief summary

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the therapeutic effect of a thermal treatment on gonarthrosis, with an increase of the number of patients presenting a clinically significant improvement.

Detailed description

Gonarthrosis is a frequent pathology and the prevalence increase with age (prevalence: 6,1% in an adult population more than 30 years old and 40% after 75 years). It has a large impact on the quotidian life of the patients and it cause important costs for social protection. Relative to the treatment, numerous recommendations have been proposed (EULAR, ACR specifically). But no one of them recommends thermal treatment even if it is largely used in Europe and especially in France for the treatment of this pathology. Several prospective controlled randomized studies have evaluated the effect of the thermal treatments in rheumatology and some of them are relative, in part, to Gonarthrosis. So, we conduct a phase III randomized, controlled, single blind study evaluating the therapeutic effect at 6 month of a thermal cure on gonarthrosis. In a situation of physical treatment, it's impossible to use a placebo as control: blind can't be respected. Whatever the methodology employed, non blind of the patient create a bias. So, we hope that the Zelen method for randomization will reduce the bias due to the dissatisfaction of the patients in the control group.

Interventions

thermal cure of 18 days including movement in swimming pool, mud-bath, shower, massage and thermal steam

DRUG3 days access to watering place at 6 months

access to watering place for movement in swimming pool, sauna and hammam.

Sponsors

Association Francaise pour la Recherche Thermale
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

* ACR criteria: knee pain and one of the tree following conditions: Age \> 50 years, Morning stiffness\< 30 minutes and articular crackling. * osteophytes visible on knee radiography. * knee radiography less than 3 years old: face, schuss, axial of kneecap cliché. * Actual gonarthrosis intensity on Visual Analogic Scale \> or = 30mm.

Exclusion criteria

* arthrosis limited to the femoro-patellar compartments. * severe depressive syndrome, psychosis. * Thermal cure less than 6 month before. * Contra-indication or predictable inability to tolerate thermal cure. * Profession lied to hydrotherapy. * previous knee treatments: * massage, physiotherapy and acupuncture since less than 1 month; * infiltration since less than 3 months; * NSAI since less than 5 days; * analgesic since less than 12 hours; * modification in the medicinal anti-arthrosis treatment since less than 3 months.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frame
the more small change clinically relevant of the WOMAC indice and/or of pain.at 6 months

Secondary

MeasureTime frame
The clinically acceptable symptom for the patientat 6 months
Clinical evaluationat inclusion and 1, 3 and 6 months
WOMAC indice and pain (EVA)at inclusion and 1, 3, 6 and 9 months
Quality of life: questionnaire SF-36inclusion and 1, 3, 6 and 9 months
Treatments: medicinal consumption, physical treatments, hospitalization, consumption of cares getting back by the Medicaid of Savoie (CPAM, only for the study centre of Aix-les-Bains)inclusion and 1,3,6 months
Opinion of the patient and the physicianat 1, 3 and 6 months

Countries

France

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Mar 21, 2026