Is intra-articular hyaluronic acid effective in treating osteoarthritis of the hip joint?

Hyaluronic acid (HA) injections are used to treat osteoarthritis of the hip but their efficacy has not been clearly established. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the effect of HA injections on hip pain. There were twenty-three studies that met our criteria and the mean decrease in visual analog scores (VAS) was -1.97 (95% CL, 2.83 to -1.12, P<0.0001). However, the clinical relevance of this change is difficult to determine since the decrease in VAS was only -0.27 in the six randomized trials in the study and the duration of follow-up in most studies was less than six months. Multicenter randomized trials are needed to determine the true efficacy of HA injections in decreasing pain associated with hip osteoarthritis.