New Treatments For Knee Arthritis

New Treatments For Knee Arthritis.
Pain-relieving treatments for knee arthritis all guide better than doing nothing - but it's obdurate to point to a clear winner, a new research over again concluded. Using data from almost 140 studies, researchers found all of the widely used arthritis treatments - from over-the-counter painkillers to pain-relieving injections - brought more easing to aching knees over three months than did placebo pills. But there were some surprises in the study, according to priority researcher Dr Raveendhara Bannuru, of Tufts Medical Center in Boston.

Overall, the biggest forward came from injections of hyaluronic acid (HA) - a therapy some professional medical groups consider only marginally effective. Hyaluronic acid is a lubricating heart found naturally in the joints. Over the years, studies have been adulterated as to whether injections of synthetic HA help arthritic joints, and the treatment remains under debate. Bannuru cautioned that regardless of his team's positive findings, it's not clear whether hyaluronic acid itself deserves the credit.

That's because his side found a large "placebo effect" across the HA studies. Patients who received injections of an torpid substance often reported pain relief, too. As a whole, they did better than settle in other trials who were given placebo pills. According to Bannuru's team, that suggests there is something about the "delivery method" - injections into the knee joint, whatever the resources - that helps ease some people's pain.

But there's no unobstructed explanation for why that would be. He and his colleagues report their findings in the Jan 6, 2015 point of Annals of Internal Medicine. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 27 million Americans have osteoarthritis - the "wear and tear" variety of arthritis where the cartilage cushioning a mutual breaks down. The knees are middle the most commonly affected joints.