Assessment of the efficacy of joint lavage versus joint lavage plus corticoids in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee

Purpose: Joint lavage (JL), involves the passage of cold sterile 0.9% saline through the knee joint in order to have the fluid reach the inside of the joint capsule. This technique was evaluated as a local treatment for osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee alone (JL) and in combination with intra-articular infiltration with glucocorticoids (JLC). Patients and methods: An overall 299 knees belonging to 205 patients (22% males, 78% females) with a mean age of 67 8 years and osteoarthritis of the knee of radiological grade II or III on the Kellgren scale were randomised in the ratio of 1:4 into two therapeutic groups, namely: JL (n = 62) and JLC (n = 237). All patients received joint lavage on day 0; in those of the JLC group, joint lavage was followed by infiltration of 40 mg of triamcinolone acetonide. The efficacy of both treatments was assessed by recording the corresponding values for the following variables: pain strength as measured by a visual analogy scale (VAS), effusion, crepitation, restricted motion, spontaneous pain, pain on pressure, pain on passive motion and pain on active motion; all of these were recorded at the onset of the study, and after 1 and 3 months. Results: There were no significant differences in the values of the variables at the different follow-up times. Also, pain severity was similar in both treatment groups. Thus, VAS for pain was 7.3 +/- 0.3 for the JL group and 7.1 +/- 0.2 for the JLC group at the onset, and decreased to 3.0 +/- 0.3 in the former and 2.8 +/- 0.2 in the latter after 1 month; the decrease was statistically significant in both cases. After 3 months, the JL and JLC groups had a VAS of 3.5 +/- 0.3 and 3.8 +/- 0.2, respectively. Conclusions: The results of this work suggest the absence of significant differences between the two treatments, such that both joint lavage alone and with infiltration with corticoids can be concluded as similarly effective for the symptomatic management of osteoarthritis of the knee.