This guide keeps the focus on your knee

An exam can narrow your choices

Tell the clinician how soreness affects sleep and walking. Your health and medicines also matter. Cost and recovery time belong in the talk.

Research can't promise your result.

Exercise helps many people keep moving. Surgery may fit when severe limits continue. Ask how each treatment could help and what risks come with it. After the exam, say back what you heard. If it isn't clear, ask again. You'll want to know when to return. You don't need to settle every choice during one visit. That's your decision. You can write those answers down before leaving. You won't need to trust your memory later.

The clinic owners benefit if you book

The owners of nearby QC Kinetix clinics run this site. Their business benefits if you book a visit. Keep that in mind as you weigh care.

You can ask your own doctor too.

Ask about risks and likely recovery. Another view may help before major surgery. QC Kinetix's Chandler team offers natural pain treatments such as PRP, made by drawing and spinning your blood before placing the prepared part in your knee.

Sources

1. The 2019 ACR/Arthritis Foundation guideline makes STRONG recommendations for exercise, weight loss in people with overweight or obesity, self-efficacy and self-management programs, tai chi, cane use, tibiofemoral bracing, topical NSAIDs, oral NSAIDs and intra-articular glucocorticoid injections in knee OA; radiofrequency ablation for knee OA is only a conditional recommendation.

   Kolasinski SL, et al. — 2019 American College of Rheumatology/Arthritis Foundation Guideline for the Management of Osteoarthritis of the Hand, Hip, and Knee.. Arthritis & Rheumatology, 2020. DOI: 10.1002/art.41142.

2. The RESTORE trial randomized 288 adults aged 50+ with symptomatic mild-to-moderate medial knee OA to three weekly leukocyte-poor PRP injections or saline placebo. At 12 months, pain change was -2.1 vs -1.8 points (difference -0.4; 95% CI -0.9 to 0.2; P=.17) and medial tibial cartilage volume change was -1.4% vs -1.2% (P=.81). 29 of 31 prespecified secondary outcomes showed no significant between-group difference. The authors concluded the findings 'do not support use of PRP for the management of knee OA.'

   Bennell KL, Paterson KL, Metcalf BR, et al. — Effect of Intra-articular Platelet-Rich Plasma vs Placebo Injection on Pain and Medial Tibial Cartilage Volume in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: The RESTORE Randomized Clinical Trial.. JAMA, 2021. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2021.19415.

3. A 2026 Cochrane review searching from 2010 to January 2025 found only ONE randomised trial (100 participants, Denmark) comparing knee arthroplasty with non-surgical treatment. Low-certainty evidence indicated TKA may reduce pain at one year by a clinically important margin (MD 17.60, 95% CI 8.25 to 26.95) and may improve function by an amount that might not be clinically important (MD 12.40), with probably no clinically important difference in health-related quality of life.

   Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group — Total and partial knee arthroplasty versus non-surgical interventions of the knee for moderate to severe osteoarthritis.. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2026. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD015378.pub2.

4. In the 68-week STEP 9 trial, 407 participants with obesity (mean BMI 40.3) and moderate knee OA with at least moderate pain were randomized 2:1 to once-weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg or placebo alongside diet and activity counselling. Weight change was -13.7% vs -3.2%, and WOMAC pain improved -41.7 vs -27.5 points (both P<0.001). Gastrointestinal adverse events drove discontinuation in 6.7% vs 3.0%.

   Bliddal H, Bays H, Czernichow S, et al. — Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Persons with Obesity and Knee Osteoarthritis.. New England Journal of Medicine, 2024. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2403664.

5. A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis of eight sham-controlled RCTs (n=627) found genicular nerve ablation (radiofrequency or cryoneurolysis) reduced knee OA pain versus sham at 12 weeks (MD -1.65; 95% CI -2.57 to -0.74) and improved WOMAC function (MD -11.37), with high heterogeneity (I2 83-91%) and no serious adverse events reported. The population studied was patients INELIGIBLE for arthroplasty.

   Pain Medicine authors — Efficacy and safety of genicular nerve ablation techniques for knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of sham-controlled randomized trials.. Pain Medicine, 2026. DOI: 10.1093/pm/pnaf140.

6. A 2026 network meta-analysis of 21 RCTs (2,254 patients) found both leukocyte-poor and leukocyte-rich PRP significantly improved 6-12 month WOMAC function versus placebo (MD -10.54 and -13.20 respectively) and both were superior to hyaluronic acid, with leukocyte-poor PRP ranked first (P-score 0.96) — a materially more favourable read of PRP than the RESTORE trial, which is why this corpus presents both.

   Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research authors — Leukocyte-rich versus leukocyte-poor platelet-rich plasma and hyaluronic acid for knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.. Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research, 2026. DOI: 10.1186/s13018-026-06689-4.