Background and aims: Current evidence for the use of intra-articular injections for thumb base osteoarthritis (TBOA) is equivocal. This study aims to investigate the efficacy of intra-articular corticosteroids, hyaluronic acid and platelet-rich plasma.
Methods: A Frequentist network meta-analysis was conducted comparing outcomes at short (≤3 months) and medium-term (>3-12 months) time points.
Results: Data from 7 RCTs and 1 non-RCT (446 patients) were collected, consisting of corticosteroids (n = 7), hyaluronic acid (n = 7), platelet-rich plasma (n = 2) and placebo (n = 2). At the short-term time point, no intra-articular injection demonstrated superiority over placebo at reducing pain. At the medium-term time point, superiority of platelet-rich plasma at reducing pain over placebo and corticosteroids was seen following sensitivity analysis (RCTs only) (SMD -1.48 95 % CI -2.71; -0.25). No injection proved superior at improving function at short or medium-term time points.
Conclusions: Overall, despite the promising result for platelet-rich plasma, the evidence quality was limited to two studies only justifying the need for further and larger methodologically robust trials investigating corticosteroids, hyaluronic acid and platelet-rich plasma vs each other and placebo.
Keywords: Hyaluronic acid; Meta-analysis; Osteoarthritis; PRP; Steroid; Thumb base.
© 2023 Professor P K Surendran Memorial Education Foundation. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.