A Systematic Review
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2003
Objectives: To review the scientific evidence on the efficacy, effectiveness, and safety of intra-articular injections of Hylan G-F 20 for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.
Methods: Systematic review of experimental and observational studies performed in humans up to December 1999. Qualitative and quantitative (meta-analytic) techniques were used for data synthesis.
Results: A single course of intra-articular Hylan G{-}F 20 provides a statistically significant and clinically relevant short-term decrease of the painful symptomatology of knee osteoarthritis and improves joint function. It also seems to delay the need for knee replacement, if results observed in noncontrolled studies are confirmed. Hylan G-F 20 has a comparable efficacy to that of oral NSAID, and a smaller risk of gastrointestinal adverse effects. It seems to be well tolerated and safe, but the short follow-up in most studies limits any extrapolation of the effectiveness and safety over the longer term. There is also scarce evidence on the effect of multiple courses of Hylan G-F 20, and the scientific rigor of both experimental and nonexperimental studies reviewed is somewhat limited.
Conclusions: Whereas there is good quality scientific evidence showing that Hylan G-F 20 is a safe and well-tolerated therapy providing a short-term decrease of the pain symptoms while improving joint function, the delay of the need for knee replacement as well as the durability of the effect over the longer term have only been demonstrated in noncontrolled clinical series. The available evidence is not sufficient to reach firm conclusions on the effect of multiple courses of intra-articular injections of Hylan G-F 20 on health outcomes.
To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.