Efficacy of an herbal containing food supplement in reducing pain and edema among patients who underwent total knee replacement

Osteoarthritis of the knee is a highly disabling common chronic joint disease, which is often treated surgically with total knee replacement by prostheses in synthetic material. Postoperative course is usually characterized by mild to severe pain and development of edema of the limb. These conditions together contribute in making the postoperative recovery difficult and slow; moreover, they can affect the course of rehabilitation specific exercise treatment. In this case series we evaluated the effectiveness of the administration of a commercially available food supplement containing Diosmin and other flavonids in a micronized form (mu SMIN Plus), Botswellia Serrata (Bospure), Bromelain, Hesperidin and Vitamin C in seven patients who underwent total knee replacement for osteoarthritis, experiencing moderate to severe pain and remarkable edema. The employed treatment resulted effective in reducing edema as well as lowering pain in our patients in a relatively short period of observation. This also translated in a better tolerance of the ongoing rehabilitation treatment, thus accelerating the postoperative recovery and onset of correct walking. No relevant side effect was recordered. On the basis of these observations, we conclude that the employed, commercially available food supplement can represent a useful treatment for this category of patients, although our findings deserve confirmation clinical studies involving adequate numbers of patients.