1.      Knee bracing ranked most effective for improving pain, function, and stiffness in knee osteoarthritis.

2.      Hydrotherapy and exercise followed closely in comparative rankings across multiple outcomes.

3.      Ultrasound consistently ranked lowest, with placebo sometimes performing as well or better.

4.      Researchers explained that knee orthoses can apply a valgus force or modify ground reaction force to reduce medial knee load.

5.      The analysis included 139 randomized clinical trials with 9,644 patients.

6.      Limitations included varied treatment durations, small sample sizes, and restriction to English-language studies.

Source: PloS One