Comparing the Effects of Simultaneous Intra-Articular and Periarticular Prolotherapy and Intra-articular Prolotherapy Alone in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis and Effusion: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Knee osteoarthritis is a debilitating disorder. Limited studies have shown that Prolotherapy using saline instead of dextrose is effective, especially in diabetic patients and reduces the negative effects of this disease. In the present study, 40 patients with knee osteoarthritis along with joint effusion were divided into two groups of 20. The first group went under simultaneous intra-articular and peri-articular knee injection of hypertonic saline and the second one had only intra-articular injection. In each group, three sessions of injection were done in two weeks interval. The standard questionnaires of VAS, WOMAC and OKS, were completed for both groups, before intervention and in the 2nd and 4th weeks after the last injection. VAS was used for pain relief; WOMAC to assess pain in various daily activities; and OKS to assess the amount of pain, lameness and the ability to perform various activities. Using SPSS version 25, data was analyzed by independent and paired t- test. Although both groups showed improvement of outcomes after intervention there was a significant difference between simultaneous intra-articular and peri-articular Prolotherapy method compared to intra-articular Prolotherapy alone in favor of the first method.

Keywords

• knee osteoarthritis
• effusion
• prolotherapy
• intra-articular
• peri-articular