Effects of oral HA in knee osteoarthritis symptoms

Oral Administration of Polymer Hyaluronic Acid Alleviates Symptoms of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study over a 12-Month Period.

Article specifications

This prospective, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was published in 2012 in The Scientific World Journal (IF 2013:1.219) by Japanese orthopedics. This study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of oral hyaluronic acid (HA) administration for osteoarthritis (OA) in knee joints. Sixty osteoarthritic subjects (Kellgren-Lawrence grade 2 or 3) were randomly assigned to the HA or placebo group. To be included in the study, patients had to be 50 years of age or older and had to have OA of Kellgren-Lawrence (K/L) grade 2 or grade 3 in at least one knee joint, which must have been symptomatic for at least 2 months prior to enrollment. If a subject had pain in both knees, the more painful knee had to meet these criteria. The subjects in the HA group were given 200 mg of HA once a day every day for 12 months, while the subjects in the placebo group were given placebo. The subjects in both groups were requested to conduct quadriceps strengthening exercise everyday as part of the treatment. The subjects’ symptoms were evaluated by the Japanese Knee Osteoarthritis Measure (JKOM) score. The symptoms of the subjects were recorded immediately before and at 2, 4, 6, and 12 months after the initial capsule administration.

Results

The symptoms of the subjects as determined by the JKOM score improved with time in both the HA and placebo groups. This improvement tended to be more obvious with the HA group, and this trend was more obvious with the subjects aged 70 years or less. For these relatively younger subjects, the JKOM score was significantly better than the one for the placebo group at the 2nd and 4th months after the initiation of administration. Oral administration of HA may improve the symptoms of knee OA in patients aged 70 years or younger when combined with the quadriceps strengthening exercise.