Five cycle of weekly arthrocenteses plus hyaluronic acid injections in patients with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) osteoarthritis

Temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis an open label trial of 76 patients treated with arthrocentesis plus hyaluronic acid injections.

Article specifications

This clinical trial was published in 2009 in Journal of Int J Oral Maxillofac Surg. (IF 2012: 1.521) by Italian dentists. This study is an open-label trial on a sample of 76 consecutive patients with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) osteoarthritis treated with a cycle of five weekly arthrocenteses plus hyaluronic acid injections. Patients had a diagnosis of osteoarthritis according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders (RDC/TMD Axis I Group IIIb). They underwent a cycle of five arthrocenteses with injections (1 per week) of 1ml hyaluronic acid and four follow-up assessments after the end of the treatment (at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months).

  

Result

Data from this study lend further support to the usefulness of serial hyaluronic acid injections performed after arthrocentesis for the treatment of TMJ osteoarthritis and for the maintenance of improvements over a 6-month follow-up period.