Comparison of Intra-articular Injection of Hyaluronic Acid and N-Acetyl Cysteine in the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis

Comparison of Intra-articular Injection of Hyaluronic Acid and N-Acetyl Cysteine in the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Pilot Study.

Article specifications

This clinical trial was published in 2018 in Journal of Cartilage. (IF 2017: 2.693) by Turkish specialists. The aim of this study was to compare the relative effectiveness of intra-articular N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) and hyaluronic acid (HA) on pain, function and cartilage degradation markers in patients with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis (OA). We prospectively conducted a clinical trial with 20 patients having a diagnosis of Kellgren-Lawrence grade 2-3 knee OA, and randomly allocated to the HA or NAC groups.

 

Result

The results of this study shows that NAC is effective in lowering some cartilage degradation markers, with comparable outcomes to HA for pain and function. NAC could provide a cheaper alternative to HA for intra-articular injection treatment of mild to moderate knee OA.