Therapeutic Strategy for Knee Osteoarthritis with Subchondral Bone Lesions: Combination Therapy of Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy and Regenerative Medicine

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a whole-joint disease involving subchondral bone lesion (BML) that predict treatment outcomes. This retrospective, non-randomized study compared extracorporeal shockwave therapy alone (ESWT), autologous protein solution and ESWT (APS), intra-articular mesenchymal stromal cell and ESWT (MSC-A), and combined intra-articular and intra-osseous MSC and ESWT (MSC-B) for knee OA with BML. We hypothesized that combination therapies would provide superior and earlier outcomes for advanced cases. The primary outcome was the change in the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) at 3 and 6 months. The results showed ESWT was effective, but only in the absence of articular surface collapse (KOOS IV (pre–6M) = 18.6 ± 13.9) vs. presence of collapse (4.4 ± 6.5). APS led to earlier improvement in cases without subchondral bone plate (SBP) tear (KOOS IV (pre–3M) = 18.4 ± 12.7) vs. ESWT 12.0 ± 14.0). MSC-A with SBP tear achieved significant early gain (KOOS IV (pre–3M) = 13.9 ± 10.1) but plateaued by 6 months. MSC-B without collapse showed significant 6-month improvement (KOOS IV (pre–6M) = 15.8 ± 8.6), but failed in collapse cases (KOOS IV (pre–6M) = −4.4 ± 7.7). ESWT is effective, APS provides early benefits, and MSC-B is promising for advanced SBP tear cases, but articular surface collapse limits efficacy across all therapies.