Knee osteoarthritis: Comparison between ultrasound-guided and landmark-guided hyaluronic acid injection in terms of perceived pain

Abstract

Knee osteoarthritis is a widespread disability that represents a large proportion of the population with significant effects on affected individuals, health care systems and extensive socio-economic costs. It is a pathologic condition that affects the entire joint, including the cartilage, the hypochondriac bone, the ligaments, the synovial membrane and the surrounding muscles and not exclusively the articular cartilage as previously established. Clinically, the knee joint is the most common form of osteoarthritis, followed by the extremities of the hand and hip. The present study aimed to compare the perceived pain in the diagnosis of knee osteoarthritis by using ultrasound-guided hyaluronic acid injection versus the classical anatomically-guided hyaluronic acid injection. The sample of the present study consisted of 48 patients suffering from osteoarthritis of the knee who visited the Orthopedic Outpatient Clinics of the General Panarkadikon Hospital, in Tripoli, Greece, between November 2019 and June 2020. Of these, 24 patients constituted the ultrasound (US) group, and 24 patients, the anatomically-guided (LMG) group by using randomization of the total sample. For this study, the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) was used. The Cronbach’s Alpha reliability index of the questionnaire is 0.73. The analysis was performed with the IBM SPSS v.25 statistical program. The pain intensity was related to the method used (p