Comparative effectiveness of intra-articular administration of different drugs of hyaluronic acid with various physico-chemical properties in knee osteoarthritis

Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a chronic disease that leads to a significant deterioration in the quality of life and disability. In the treatment of OA, hyaluronic acid (HA) drugs have an important place.Objective: to compare the effectiveness of ROA treatment with different HA drugs with different physicochemical properties and molecular weight.Patients and methods. A 12-week prospective randomized study of the comparative efficacy of a single intra-articular injection of three HA drugs – Armaviscon Forte (AF), Flexotron Cross (FCr) and Flexotron Ultra (FUL) was carried out. The study group consisted of 90 patients with knee osteoarthritis, aged from 43 to 50 years (the majority were women – 63.3%) with an initial severity of pain >40 mm according to the visual analogue scale (VAS). The result of therapy was assessed by the dynamics of pain (VAS), WOMAC index, and subjective assessment of the effect 3 months after intra-articular administration of HA.Results and discussion. Eight patients dropped out of the study: in the AF group – 3, FCr – 4, FUL – 1. After 90 days, the decrease in pain compared to baseline values in the AF group was 30%, in FCr – 46% and in FUL – 57% (p ≤0,05), and the dynamics of the WOMAC index – 27, 36, and 42%, respectively. After 90 days, 85.0, 93.4 and 96.5% of patients noted improvement and significant improvement in the AF, FCr and FUL groups, respectively. No serious adverse events were recorded.Conclusion. All investigated drugs demonstrated high analgesic potential, but the best clinical effect was observed with FUL.