Sodium Hyaluronate Injections Reduce Shoulder Pain

FRIDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- Intra-articular sodium hyaluronate injections may benefit patients with persistent shoulder pain and limitation resulting from glenohumeral joint osteoarthritis, rotator cuff tear and/or adhesive capsulitis, but the treatment may be most beneficial for those who have osteoarthritis, according to the results of a study published in the May issue of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.

Theodore Blaine, M.D., of Brown Alpert Medical School in Providence, R.I., and colleagues randomly assigned 660 patients to receive either five weekly intra-articular injections of sodium hyaluronate, three weekly intra-articular injections of sodium hyaluronate followed by two weekly intra-articular injections of saline solution, or five weekly intra-articular injections of saline solution.

Among the 456 patients who completed 26 weeks of follow-up, the researchers found that those who were managed with sodium hyaluronate experienced greater pain relief than controls. But their analysis of the stratified populations showed that patients with osteoarthritis had significantly better visual analog scale shoulder pain scores after hyaluronate treatment as compared with those without osteoarthritis.

"Although the primary end point of this study (that is, improvement in terms of shoulder pain at 13 weeks) was not achieved, the overall findings, including secondary end points, indicate that sodium hyaluronate (500 to 730 kDa) is effective and well tolerated for the treatment of osteoarthritis and persistent shoulder pain that is refractory to other standard non-operative interventions," the authors conclude.

At least one of the study co-authors has financial ties to Sanofi-Aventis.

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