Oral or transdermal opioids for osteoarthritis of the knee or hip?
Bugger. The benefits of opioids in osteoarthritis are probably outweighed by the negatives.
The small mean benefit of non-tramadol opioids are contrasted by significant increases in the risk of adverse events. For the pain outcome in particular, observed effects were of questionable clinical relevance since the 95% CI did not include the minimal clinically important difference of 0.37 SMDs, which corresponds to 0.9 cm on a 10-cm VAS.