Electrical stimulation to encourage cartilage growth might be able to improve osteoarthritis of the knee, but more research is needed to be certain.

Pulsed electric stimulation as a treatment for osteoarthritis has appeared promising since the stimulation of cartilage growth was recorded at the cellular level; its growing popularity has now called for evaluation of its effectiveness. The literature search and hand searches identified 3 trials with a total of 259 patients. All trials examined knee OA and one also performed a separate evaluation for cervical OA patients. The results of this analysis show improvements in all measurements for knee OA, but their clinical significance from a patient's perspective was questionable. Only two outcomes favoured treatment for cervical OA trial and none were considered clinically important. There were no reported side effects. The reviewers conclude that there is an urgent need for further large-scale studies of pulsed electric stimulation with a focus on knee OA to establish the clinical relevance of treatment.