Different Intra-articular Injections as Therapy for Hip Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis

This systematic review and network meta-analysis aimed to compare the clinical outcomes between 4 intra-articular injections (platelet-rich plasma [PRP], hyaluronic acid [HA], corticosteroid [CS], and HA plus PRP) for hip osteoarthritis (OA).

We performed a systematic literature search in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane database through April 2018 to identify any randomized controlled trials that evaluated the clinical efficacy of HA, PRP, CS, HA-plus-PRP, and control treatments for hip OA. Baseline information-country, mean age, number of patients, and Kellgren-Lawrence grade of hip OA in the treatment and control groups-was collected. The primary outcome was the visual analog scale (VAS) score at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after injection.

We included 11 randomized controlled trials with a total of 1,060 patients. The Kellgren-Lawrence grades of the treatment and control groups were similar in individual studies. The pair-wise meta-analysis indicated that CS and HA were superior to the control group in reducing the VAS score at 1 month and 3 months (P < .05) and that CS was superior to HA in reducing the VAS score at 1 month (P < .05). The network meta-analysis results indicated that HA and CS exhibited a beneficial role in reducing the VAS score at 1 month. CS achieved the lowest value for the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) for the VAS score at 1 month (0.23), and the SUCRA values of the 5 interventions showed that PRP achieved the lowest SUCRA value for the VAS score at 6 months (0.53).

CS injections are recommended as the most efficient agent in hip OA patients in the short term. Moreover, PRP is reported to have the highest rank for pain relief for up to 6 months. Considering the limitations of this meta-analysis, future direct comparisons with more samples are needed.

Level II, meta-analysis of Level I and II studies.