{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]],"date-time":"2026-08-03T11:48:11Z","timestamp":1785757691625,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]],"date-time":"2026-08-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785715200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Medicina"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background and Objectives: Knee osteoarthritis is a major cause of chronic pain and disability. Because the benefit of intra-articular corticosteroid injection is often limited, this study compared fluoroscopy-guided corticosteroid injection alone with corticosteroid injection combined with pulsed radiofrequency (PRF). Materials and Methods: This retrospective comparative study included 386 consecutive patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis treated with fluoroscopy-guided intra-articular corticosteroid injection alone (IAS, n = 190) or combined with PRF (IAS + PRF, n = 196). Pain and function were assessed using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) at baseline and 1 week, 1, 3, and 6 months. The primary endpoint was the 6-month VAS score. Baseline-adjusted linear mixed-effects models were the primary analyses, with propensity score-matched analyses as sensitivity analyses. Results: Both groups showed significant improvements in pain over time. In the primary baseline-adjusted analyses, adding PRF was associated with greater early- and mid-term pain reduction, including significantly lower VAS scores at the 6-month primary endpoint and higher rates of clinically meaningful pain improvement (\u226550% response). However, this adjusted difference was modest (below the minimal clinically important difference) and was no longer statistically significant after propensity score matching (6-month VAS median 5.0 in both groups; p = 0.763), indicating that baseline imbalance contributed to the apparent advantage. Conclusions: In baseline-adjusted analyses, adding PRF to intra-articular corticosteroid injection was associated with more favourable early- and mid-term pain outcomes than corticosteroid injection alone, although the difference was modest and was not confirmed after propensity score matching. Given the retrospective, non-randomized design and baseline imbalance, these findings should be considered hypothesis-generating. Prospective randomized, sham-controlled studies with longer follow-up are needed to clarify the role of PRF as an adjunctive treatment for knee osteoarthritis.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/medicina62081492","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]],"date-time":"2026-08-03T10:24:07Z","timestamp":1785752647000},"page":"1492","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Intra-Articular Steroid Injection with or Without Pulsed Radiofrequency in Knee Osteoarthritis: A Retrospective Comparative Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"62","author":[{"given":"Emel","family":"Basar","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pain Medicine, Ankara Bilkent City Hospital, Ankara 06800, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nevcihan","family":"Sahutoglu Bal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pain Medicine, Ankara Bilkent City Hospital, Ankara 06800, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1461-4092","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gulcin","family":"Babaoglu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pain Medicine, Ankara Bilkent City Hospital, Ankara 06800, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hatice","family":"Babaoglan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pain Medicine, Ankara Bilkent City Hospital, Ankara 06800, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Erkan Yavuz","family":"Akcaboy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pain Medicine, Ankara Bilkent City Hospital, Ankara 06800, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fadil, A., Muaidi, Q.I., Alayat, M.S., AlMatrafi, N.A., Subahi, M.S., and Alshehri, M.A. (2025). 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