Arthroscopic debridement of the osteoarthritic knee combined with hyaluronic acid (Orthovisc®) treatment: A case series and review of the literature

OBJECTIVE An evaluation of safety and efficacy of high molecular weight hyaluronan (HA) delivered at the time of arthroscopic debridement of the osteoarthritic knee. METHODS Thirty consecutive patients who met inclusion and exclusion criteria underwent arthroscopic debridement by a single surgeon and concomitant delivery of 6 ml/90 mg HA (Orthovisc). These patients were evaluated preoperatively, at 6 weeks, 3 and 6 months post-operatively. Evaluations consisted of WOMAC pain score, SF-36 Physical Component Summary (PCS) score and complications. RESULTS No complications occurred during this study. Pre-op average WOMAC pain score was 6.8 +/- 3.5 (n = 30) with a reduction to 3.4 +/- 3.1 at 6 weeks (n = 27). Final average WOMAC pain score improved to 3.2 +/- 3.8 at six months (n = 23). No patients had deterioration of the WOMAC pain score. Mean pre-operative SF-36 PCS score was 39.0 +/- 10.4 with SF-36 PCS score of the bottom 25th percentile at 29.9 (n = 30). Post procedure and HA delivery, mean PCS score at 6 weeks improved to 43.7 +/- 8.0 with the bottom 25th percentile at 37.5 (n = 27). At 6 months, mean PCS score was 48.0 +/- 9.8 with the bottom 25th percentile improved to 45.8 (n = 23). CONCLUSION The results show that concomitant delivery of high molecular weight hyaluronan (Orthovisc--6 ml/90 mg) is safe when given at the time of arthroscopic debridement of the osteoarthritic knee. By delivering HA (Orthovisc) at the time of the arthroscopic debridement, there may be a decreased risk of joint infection and/or injection site pain. Furthermore, the combination of both procedures show efficacy in reducing WOMAC pain scores and improving SF-36 PCS scores over a six month period.