Papers of the Week

The prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA) is rising, and pain is the hallmark symptom of OA. Pain in OA is complicated and can be influenced by multiple joint-related factors and factors related to, e.g., physiological, epigenetic, and pain sensory profiles. Increasing evidence suggests that a subset of patients with OA are pain sensitive. This can be assessed using quantitative sensory testing (QST). Common treatments of OA are total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and administration of 3-weeks of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which provide pain relief to many patients with OA. However, approx. 20% of patients experience chronic postoperative pain after TKA, whereas NSAIDs provide an average pain relief of approx. 25%. The current topical review focuses on the emerging evidence linking pretreatment QST to the treatment response of TKA and NSAID treatments.