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Table 2 Characteristics of trials of TENS for pain relief in patients with knee osteoarthritis
| First author, publication year | Type | No of patients on active therapy (n = 259) | Method quality | Treat-ment period (weeks) | Mean baseline pain (mm VAS) | Best mean difference (95% CI) of change over placebo (mm VAS) | Outcome time points (in weeks, max. effect in bold) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adedoyin-03 | IF | 15 | 3 | 4 | 81.0 | 25.4 (8.2 to 42.6) | 1, 2, 3,4 |
| Cheing-02 | TENS | 16 | 4 | 2 | - | 8.4 (0.7 to 16.1) | 2, 4 |
| Cheing-03 | TENS | 30 | 3 | 2 | 50.3 | 32.2 (23.9 to 40.5) | 4, 8 |
| Defrin-05 | IF | 45 | 4 | 4 | 71.0 | 41.6 (33.4 to 49.8) | 4 |
| Fargas-Babjak-89 | TENS | 19 | 3 | 12 | - | 45.3 (11.7 to 78.9) | 6, 12 |
| Law-05 | ALTENS/TENS | 27 | 4 | 2 | 57.3 | 29.7 (7.6 to 51.3) | 2, 4 |
| Lewis-84** | TENS | 29 | 3 | 3 | - | 7.0 (-5.6 to 19.6) | 3 |
| Lewis-94** | TENS | 28 | 1 | 3 | - | 4.9 (-8.4 to 18.3) | 3 |
| Smith-83 | TENS | 15 | 3 | 4 | - | dichotomous data only | 4 |
| Taylor-81** | TENS | 10 | 2 | 2 | - | 5.5 (-7.3 to 17.8) | 2 |
| Yurtkuran-99 | ALTENS | 25 | 3 | 2 | - | 20.0 (14.1 to 25.9) | 2 |
| Best within 4 weeks, all trials | 223 | 18.8 (9.6 to 28.1) | |||||
| Best within 4 weeks, optimal trials | 156 | 22.2 (18.1 to 26.3) | |||||
| 8 weeks | 30 | 8.3 (-1.1 to 17.6) | |||||
| Global improvement 8 weeks | 15 | 1.8 (0.6 to 4.8) Relative Risk | |||||
| Overall | 259 | 3.3* | 63.8† | 2.8* |
