The use of beta-blockers may be associated with a lower risk of total knee arthroplasty in patients with osteoarthritis, according to a study published by Tamimi et al in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. Investigators analyzed the data of 600 patients who had a history of new-onset knee pain from 2010 to 2019. The investigators then divided the patients into two groups—those who had undergone primary total knee arthroplasty and those who had not undergone the procedure—and examined their adherence to beta-blocker therapy. They discovered that compared with those who did not take beta-blockers during the study period, patients who did take them saw reductions in the risk of requiring a total knee arthroplasty (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.51, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.34–0.77). Those who took nonselective beta-1–blockers (adjusted OR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.24–0.70) were less likely to undergo total knee arthroplasty than those who took selective beta-1–blockers (adjusted OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.36–1.31). Further, the use of beta-blockers for ≥ 5 years (adjusted OR = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.22–0.60) was also correlated with a lower risk of undergoing the procedure compared with use of the agents for < 1 year (adjusted OR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.20–0.85). In a companion press release from Wolters Kluwer Health, the publisher the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery, the study authors concluded: “We believe that the role of beta-blockers in the management of [osteoarthritis] could go beyond an analgesic treatment and that these drugs [could] potentially interfere with the degenerative processes in the cartilage.”