The groups were matched by sex, body mass index and X-ray findings.

Researchers chose a group of 150 patients with similar baseline characteristics from the Osteoarthritis Initiative database, including 50 patients who received corticosteroid injections, 50 who received hyaluronic acid injections, and 50 who were not injected over a three-year time period. In the second study, researchers conducted an observational study that compared the radiographic progression (the most commonly used imaging method to diagnose OA) of osteoarthritis in patients who received injections of corticosteroids versus hyaluronic acid. X-Ray Reveals Greater KOA Progression at 2 Years in Group That Received Steroid Injections The results suggest that hyaluronic acid may slow down progression of knee osteoarthritis while also providing symptomatic relief, he added. “While both corticosteroid and hyaluronic acid injections are reported to help with symptomatic pain relief for knee osteoarthritis, our results conclusively show that corticosteroids are associated with significant progression of knee osteoarthritis up to two years post-injection and must be administered with caution,” said coauthor Upasana Upadhyay Bharadwaj, MD, a research fellow in the department of radiology at University of California in San Francisco, in a press release.

Compared with the control group, the group who received hyaluronic injections showed a decreased progression of osteoarthritis, specifically in bone marrow lesions. In contrast, hyaluronic acid knee injections were not significantly associated with the progression of osteoarthritis in the knee. Investigators found that steroid knee injections were significantly associated with the overall progression of osteoarthritis in the knee, specifically in the lateral meniscus, lateral cartilage, and medial cartilage. The treatment and control groups were matched by age, sex, body mass index, pain and physical activity scores, and severity of their knee osteoarthritis.Īll the participants had an MRI at the time of the injection and two years before and after, and the researchers tracked osteoarthritis progression by comparing the imaging scores from the initial scans and two-year follow-up scans. It’s theorized that the injections could help lubricate joints where cartilage has been eroded by osteoarthritis. Hyaluronic acid injections are used to reduce knee pain, especially when other treatments haven’t been effective. The remaining 140 participants (the control group) didn’t get any injections. The first study, conducted by the researchers at the University of California in San Francisco, included 210 participants a total of 70 subjects received intraarticular injections- 44 with steroids and 26 with hyaluronic acid. Researchers in both studies used participants from the Osteoarthritis Initiative, a multicenter, longitudinal, observational study of nearly 5,000 participants with KOA, currently in its 14th year of follow-up. Steroid Injections Significantly Associated With Progression of Knee OA More than 10 percent of patients with knee osteoarthritis seek pain relief through corticosteroid or hyaluronic acid injections. Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common kind of arthritis, and it’s estimated that 38 to 45 percent of people develop KOA over their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The findings were presented on November 29, 2022, at RSNA 2022, the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago. Steroid injections, which are often used to treat pain in knee osteoarthritis (KOA), may actually make arthritis worse, according to two new studies comparing steroid injections with hyaluronic acid, another common therapy to treat pain in the condition.

Care after steroid injection in knee