“Our findings should be replicated in future research,” they said.
“An IM glucocorticoid injection showed effectiveness in patients with hip OA on one of the three primary outcomes at a 2 weeks post injection ... The effect is probably clinically relevant,” the authors concluded.
The investigators noted that in clinical practice patients are sometimes offered multiple injections per year, whereas in the current study patients received only one injection. There has also been concern that intra-articular glucocorticoid injections could cause toxicity to chondrocytes and potentially lead to OA progression, but the effect of a single IM injection is unknown.
Financial support for the study came from the Dutch Arthritis Foundation and the NutsOhra fund. Two of the authors reported receiving grants from several pharmaceutical companies, research consortia, and foundations.