Viscosupplementation for knee osteoarthritis.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

To provide an overview of the diagnosis and pathophysiology of osteoarthritis (OA), and to describe appropriate treatments for knee OA, with a focus on the efficacy and safety of viscosupplementation. Because nurse practitioners (NPs) can inject viscosupplements, a section on injection technique is included.

DATA SOURCES:

Manuscripts were identified using PubMed and EMBASE with a review of the reference lists from retrieved articles.

CONCLUSIONS:

Viscosupplements are safe and effective at improving function and alleviating knee pain from OA for up to 26 weeks.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE:

As the number of patients with OA is increasing, NPs need to be prepared to prescribe various treatment options to alleviate osteoarthritic knee pain, including viscosupplementation.

• Authors: Michael E Zychowicz
• Journal: Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (J Am Assoc Nurse Pract) Vol. 26 Issue 3 Pg. 163-75 (Mar 2014) ISSN: 2327-6924 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 24574068 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: ©2014 The Author(s) ©2014 American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

Topics

• Humans
• Osteoarthritis, Knee (complications, pathology, therapy)
• Pain (drug therapy)
• Viscosupplementation (adverse effects, statistics & numerical data)