A recent randomized clinical trial published in the 'International Journal of Clinical Rheumatology' Journal demonstrated that strontium ranelate is effective for improving pain, synovitis, and function in primary knee osteoarthritis patients.

Yomna Mohammed Sarhan et al. aimed to investigate the efficacy of strontium ranelate in managing patients suffering from primary knee osteoarthritis. A total of 30 individuals having bilateral knee osteoarthritis were enrolled.

The participants were then allocated into two groups: (i) Group I (n=15) received 2g of strontium ranelate and physiotherapy programme, and (ii) Group II (n=15) received physiotherapy programme only. All the subjects were examined utilizing Western Ontario and McMaster Universities osteoarthritis index (WOMAC), visual analogue scale for pain (VAS), and knee magnetic resonance imaging.

The study findings reported vital improvement in VAS, and WOMAC score in group I compared to group II at six months of follow up as shown in the below table 1:

Synovitis/effusion, as detected by magnetic resonance imaging, was also significantly improved in group I compared to group II after six months of therapy.

In conclusion, strontium ranelate can be utilised for treating osteoarthritis of the knee. However, there is a need to conduct further studies with larger patient population and longer duration of treatment.