Hand osteoarthritis: oral therapy or injections?

Hand osteoarthritis is often stressful for those affected and accompanied functional restrictions. Effective treatment options are essential.

Forms of therapy for hand osteoarthritis treatment

Hand osteoarthritis: a painful condition

People with hand osteoarthritis often suffer from pain and possibly limited hand function. The disease is on the rise in many countries. A recent meta-analysis has therefore looked at which interventions can quickly provide relief from this painful condition and reduce pain. Data from over 70 studies and over 7,5000 people were analysed and evaluated.

Which therapy performs best?

The study produced clear results:

Which injections were studied?

The study compared the efficacy of various drugs with placebo:

After analysing the data, all injections showed no superiority over placebo.

Implications for therapy

The analysis data suggest that oral therapeutics are the most effective in the treatment of hand osteoarthritis. Both oral glucocorticoids and oral NSAIDs showed good efficacy. Both were more effective than placebo, and steroids were more effective than NSAIDs. Injections and topical therapies such as NSAID-containing ointments were inferior to placebo in the studies analysed.

Oral glucocorticoids appear to be an effective option for the treatment of hand osteoarthritis. The same applies to oral NSAIDs. Injections and local NSAID applications, on the other hand, appear to be less effective.

Source
  1. Døssing A, Nielsen SM, Kroon FP, Balsby IM, Tarp S, Kloppenburg M, Stamp L, Haugen IK, Altman RD, Henriksen M, Boesen M, Bliddal H, Berg S, Christensen R. Comparative effectiveness of pharmacological interventions for hand osteoarthritis: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised trials. RMD Open. 2023 Aug;9(3):e003030. doi: 10.1136/rmdopen-2023-003030. PMID: 37734873; PMCID: PMC10537980.