Hyaluronic Acid ineffective for knee osteoarthritis.

摘要

Clinical Question: Is viscosupplementation with hyaluronic acid injection effective in decreasing pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis? Bottom Line: Hyaluronic acid injection does not improve pain in patients with knee osteoarthritis but may result in serious adverse effects. (Level of Evidence = la-) Synopsis: Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring substance that acts as a lubricant and shock absorber. Various injectable products are available-Synvisc, Orthovisc, Hyalgan, and others-for intra-articular treatment of knee pain caused by osteoarthritis. This systematic review, the latest of many trying to determine whether these products work, incorporated searches of several databases, including the Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials. The reviewers also searched conference proceedings and clinical trial registries to find unpublished data (which are more likely to have found no benefit compared with published research). Two authors independently evaluated the research for eligibility and extracted the data. They included randomized trials published in any language that evaluated any hyaluronic acid product against sham therapy or no treatment. The 89 studies, with a total of 12,667 patients, were evaluated for quality, which was generally low.