New Nonsurgical Knee Treatment Delivers Lasting Pain Relief
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A minimally invasive procedure that blocks abnormal blood vessels around the knee may offer lasting relief for people with osteoarthritis who have exhausted standard treatments.
For millions of people with knee osteoarthritis, treatment options often fall into an uncomfortable middle ground: medications and injections may no longer provide enough relief, while joint replacement surgery can be too risky, undesirable, or premature. New research suggests a minimally invasive procedure that targets abnormal blood vessels around the knee could help bridge that gap, providing significant and lasting reductions in pain while improving mobility and quality of life. The findings, published in Radiology, show that embolization using rapidly resorbable gelatin-based microspheres was safe and effective in patients with osteoarthritis-related knee pain.
Knee osteoarthritis affects more than 365 million adults worldwide and is among the leading causes of disability, often causing chronic inflammation, stiffness, and progressive loss of function. “For many patients with knee osteoarthritis, there is a real treatment gap today,” said Florian Nima Fleckenstein, M.D., deputy head of Interventional Radiology Campus Mitte, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. “Conservative measures such as intra-articular injections no longer provide sufficient relief, but joint replacement is not an option for medical or personal reasons.” Genicular artery embolization (GAE) is a minimally invasive procedure that targets abnormal blood vessels surrounding the knee joint.
In osteoarthritis, these vessels can accumulate around the joint and contribute to ongoing inflammation and pain. During the procedure, an interventional radiologist uses a thin catheter to reach the affected vessels and injects tiny particles that block blood flow, helping reduce inflammation and relieve pain without surgery. The researchers proposed that GAE performed with rapidly resorbable gelatin-based microspheres could combine the advantages of both temporary embolic materials and permanent microspheres while avoiding some of their drawbacks.
These specially designed spherical particles are calibrated by size and dissolve within hours. “GAE is a whole new treatment regimen that targets abnormal hypervascularity around the joint and, in turn, modulates the pathological neurovascular environment,” Dr. “By reducing both inflammation and pain, GAE with resorbable microspheres may be the first procedure that alters the course of the disease, slowing its progression.” The prospective single-center study enrolled 194 patients with osteoarthritis-related knee pain, including 114 women and 80 men.
All participants had failed to improve after at least three months of conservative treatment, including physical therapy, anti-inflammatory medications, and intra-articular injections. The median age was 69, and the median body mass index was 28.4.
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