Mechanisms And Clinical Effects Of Ozone Therapy In Knee Osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis is a kind of chronic joint disease that characterized by articular cartilage’s degeneration and secondary bone hyperplasia, which is the most prevalent one in osteoarthritic diseases. It is a chronic inflammation involving the subchondral bone, synovial membrane, joint capsules and other structures of the knee joint. Osteoarthritis is usually accompanied by osteophyte-formation. Ozone therapy, as a newly developed treatment in pain management, has attracted attention of many professors‘. Ozone therapy has achieved satisfying outcomes in treating many diseases. This review is mainly about the therapeutic mechanisms and efficacy of ozone in knee osteoarthritis in order to establish solid evidences for this therapy.A number of studies on the mechanisms of this method mainly focus on the effects of ozone on cytokines such as interleukin-1(IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a). A large amount of studies show that ozone can inhibit the synthesis of the above two cytokines and as a result, reduce the release of nitric oxide (NO), matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and the formation of inflammation. Ozone therapy can also correct the imbalance of oxidation and anti-oxidation by reducing free radicals and their injury to the joint. Ozone can relieve pain by anti-inflammation, keeping oxidation and anti-oxidation in balance, increasing the release of encephalin and improving circulation.A large number of studies verified the outcomes and application of ozone therapy in osteoarthritis treatment. It can relieve pain, improve the joint function as well as the patients’quality of life. Compared with other methods, such as oral medicine, anti-inflammatory analgesic liquid or sodium hyaluronate injection and physiotherapy, ozone is superior in many aspects. Although many authors argue that ozone is toxic to human body, it’s demonstrated by many articles that if used within the safety window, none severe complication was observed.In summary, ozone is one treatment of minimally invasive, comparatively small injure with few complications in treating knee osteoarthritis. But at the present time, ozone therapy also has some disadvantages and limitations of its own. However, with the increasing number of researches on this therapy, those problems can be solved in the future, and ozone will be better applied in the clinical treatment of knee osteoarthritis.