Recommendations of the French Society of Rheumatology on pharmacological treatment of knee osteoarthritis.

Objectives: To establish recommendations for pharmacological treatment of knee osteoarthritis specific to France.

Methods: On behalf of the French Society of Rheumatology (SFR), a bibliography group analyzed the literature on the efficacy and safety of each pharmacological treatment for knee osteoarthritis. This group joined a multidisciplinary working group to draw up recommendations.

Intensive spa and exercise therapy program for returning to work for low back pain patients: a randomized controlled trial.

We aimed to determine whether a 5-day intensive inpatient spa and exercise therapy and educational program is more effective than usual care in improving the rate of returning to work at 1 year for patients with subacute and chronic low back pain (LBP) on sick leave for 4 to 24 weeks. We conducted a 12-month randomized controlled trial. LBP patients were assigned to 5-day spa (2 hr/day), exercise (30 min/day) and education (45 min/day) or to usual care.

Spa therapy for generalized osteoarthritis: an open, observational, preliminary study.

Objectives: Open, prospective study to evaluate the effect of spa therapy on generalized osteoarthritis (GOA).

Methods: Patients diagnosed as GOA were recruited from a private outpatient clinic. The treatment protocol was designed with 6 different spa modalities, 3 for each consecutive day, during 18 days.

Prevalence of generalized osteoarthritis in a population with knee osteoarthritis.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of generalized osteoarthritis in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Methods: Patients with knee osteoarthritis were recruited for a therapeutic trial via press announcement and selected based on American College of Rheumatology radioclinical criteria for femorotibial arthritis. Patients were asked to bring all their radiographs to the study visits, which included a physical examination.

[Validity parameters of clinical trial and their influence on evidence based medicine conception: a review].

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to review the validity of clinical trials and checklists used to evaluate them in systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Methods: We researched Medline and bibliographies of relevant articles with use of keywords and author names.

Results: Methodological choices that have a demonstrated influence on the results of clinical trials include collecting informed consent, comparison of publication with protocol, selection of patients, randomization procedure, number of subjects to include, number lost to follow-up, blinding of patients and evaluation.