By Shirley Pulaski
Results of a retrospective observational study showed patients with knee osteoarthritis who were treated with intra-articular hyaluronic acid had a longer time to knee arthroplasty compared with patients who did not receive the injections.
Using the 5% sample of Part B Medicare data between 2007 and 2012, researchers identified 23,008 patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) who underwent knee arthroplasty (KA). Hyaluronic acid (HA) injections were received by 17,007 of the patients prior to arthroplasty. Investigators stratified patients according to whether they received bioengineered high-molecular weight (HMW) or medium-molecular weight (MMW) HA, or non-bioengineered HMW or low- molecular weight (LMW) HA.
