Findings from a study published in the May 16 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association suggest that triamcinolone injection may be less effective than placebo for treatment of symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA). 

The authors conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of 119 patients with symptomatic knee OA with ultrasonic features of synovitis, who were treated with intra-articular triamcinolone or saline every 12 weeks for 2 years. At 2-year follow-up, they found no significant difference across cohorts in the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis index Likert pain subscale. However, the authors noted that intra-articular triamcinolone was associated with significantly greater cartilage volume loss compared to saline. Learn more...