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The following is a summary of “Efficacy of two doses of intra-articular ozone therapy for pain and functional mobility in knee osteoarthritis: a double-blind randomized trial,” published in the March 2025 issue of Advances in Rheumatology by Arjmanddoust et al. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess the effectiveness of intra-articular ozone therapy at 20 µg/mL and 40 µg/mL for pain relief and mobility in knee osteoarthritis (KOA).  

They conducted a parallel, 3-arm randomized controlled trial (RCT) (2022–2023) with 59 patients of KOA and allocated patients into 3 groups: 40 µg/mL ozone, 20 µg/mL ozone, and oxygen (control). Functional mobility was assessed using McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), knee flexion range of motion (FROM), the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test, and the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) and measured pain with Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and WOMAC pain subscale. They administered intra-articular injections weekly for 4 weeks and evaluated outcomes pre-treatment, and at 2 weeks, 1 month, and 2 months post-intervention and used 1-way ANOVA for normally distributed data, Kruskal-Wallis for non-normal data, and Chi-squared or Fisher’s exact test for qualitative variables.  

The results showed that intra-articular ozone therapy significantly reduced mean VAS scores and improved functional mobility (P < 0.05) compared to the control. However, post-hoc analysis found no significant differences between the 40 µg/mL and 20 µg/mL groups in VAS, FROM, TUG, 6MWT, or WOMAC scores (P > 0.05).  

They found that both 20 µg/mL and 40 µg/mL ozone therapy effectively reduced pain and improved mobility in patients with KOA. However, they observed no significant difference between the 2 doses.  

Source: advancesinrheumatology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42358-025-00443-w