Disclosures: Tiffany N. Su, MD: Nothing to disclose

Objective: To evaluate the general usage pattern of viscosupplementation in knee osteoarthritis in a Veteran population in an archival review.

Design: Retrospective chart review

Setting: Outpatient Musculoskeletal Clinics

Participants: 435 subjects with osteoarthritic knee joints who were prescribed injectable viscosupplementation.

Interventions: Subjects received course(s) of viscosupplementation (3 injections in a series) within a 2-year period.

Main Outcome Measures: Visual Numerical Scale (VNS) scores

Results: A total of 435 subjects (728 knees) were evaluated with 92.5% (674) male gender. Mean age was 63 years (SD 12.2) ranging from 25-95 with mean body mass index (BMI) of 32.30 (SD 6.49). Repeated 2 sample t tests for each injection series demonstrated mean VNS scores pre- and post-injection were statistically and clinically significant overall and after each injection. Injection #1 mean VNS=6.37 (SD 2.33) compared to Injection #3 mean VNS=4.59 (SD 2.58); mean overall difference in VNS scores= -1.78, P<.0001. All 3 injections appear to be beneficial for the subject to reduce pain. In comparing those subjects with traumatic knee arthropathy to those without a traumatic etiology, a 2-sided t-test showed statistically different mean ages. Both groups demonstrated statistically significant equivalent efficacy in pre- and post-injection scores.

Conclusions: Viscosupplementation injections to the knee joint appear to be effective in reducing pain in those with osteoarthritis regardless of age and traumatic etiology. Most appear to be effective after each injection in a series. Those subjects who have previous surgery showed the greatest improvement after the initial injection. Future studies may focus on whether sub-groups with a history of arthroscopy benefit with fewer number of injections and whether the improvement in VNS scores is associated with improvement in function.

Level of Evidence: Level III

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PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/viscosupplementation-usage-pattern-in-knee-osteoarthritis-a-retrospective-review-in-a-veteran-population/