Background: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) has become an important and disabling issue worldwide as the life expectancy has increased due to availability of better medical facilities, with a rise in the proportion of elderly population. Intra-articular injections provide a good treatment option for pain relief and disability limitation for a sizable number of patients who are not getting benefit from medicines and physiotherapy, but who are not willing for surgical management or who are not fit for surgery.

Novelty: Ketorolac has been described as a new, cost-effective and safe option for intra-articular injections for knee OA, but there has not been any comparative study of intra-articular ketorolac with the well-described and used option –  intra-articular steroid.

Objectives: Is the pain relief (as scored by VAS score) at 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months; functional outcome provided at 6 months and patient satisfaction at 6 months (assessed on a 5-point Likert scale) better with ketorolac injection than that provided with steroid injection for symptomatic knee osteoarthritis?

Methods: In this randomized controlled double-blinded study, intra-articular injections will be given for symptomatic knee osteoarthritis patients. 30 patients each will be enrolled in the two groups – steroid and ketorolac. Patients will be followed-up at 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months to assess pain relief using VAS, functional outcome using WOMAC score, KOOS score and SF-36 score, as well as patient satisfaction on a 5-point Likert scale.