Effects of intra-articular hyaluronic acid and corticosteroid therapies on articular cartilage in experimental severe osteoarthritis.

摘要

Although both corticosteroid and hyaluronic acid (HA) injections are widely used to palliate the symptoms of knee osteoarthritis (OA), Intraarticular steroids are recommended in several guidelines for the treatment of OA. While it was reported in some previous studies that it resulted in the worsening of osteoarthritic lesions (1), it has been demonstrated in experimental models that steroid injections reduce progression in cartilage erosions (2). These contradictory publications about steroids, always leave suspicion in the physicians' mind regarding their usage. HA has been reported to exert a disease-modifying OA drug effect in some experimental models of OA (3). However, there are also opinions defending that HA is not superior to placebo and therefore it may not be involved in the routine treatment of OA (4).