Abstract
OBJECTIVE—The aim of this prospective study was to find if a complete synovial fluid aspiration before injecting intra-articular corticosteroids influences the treatment result. METHODS—The study was performed in 147 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). One hundred and ninety one knees with synovitis were randomised to arthrocentesis (n=95) or no arthrocentesis (n=96) before 20 mg triamcinolone hexacetonide was injected. The duration of effect was followed up for a period of six months. All patients were instructed to contact the rheumatology department if signs and symptoms from the treated knee recurred. If arthritis could be confirmed by a clinical examination a relapse was noted. RESULTS—There was a significant reduction of relapse in the arthrocentesis group (p=0.001). CONCLUSION—The study shows that aspiration of synovial fluid can reduce the risk for arthritis relapse when treating RA patients with intra-articular corticosteroids. It is concluded that arthrocentesis shall be included in the intra-articular corticosteroid injection procedure.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (95.5 KB).
Figure 1 .
Duration of corticosteroid injection effect with or without arthrocentesis.