Intramuscular Steroid Injections for Hip Osteoarthritis?

Some guidelines suggest intra-articular steroid injections for patients with hip osteoarthritis who have not responded to oral analgesics, but the duration of the treatment effect is unclear, injections of the hip require fluoroscopy or ultrasound guidance, and septic arthritis (although rare) is a potential complication. Intramuscular injections of steroids, if effective, would be a less-complicated treatment approach.

In a new randomized trial, Dutch investigators gave intramuscular injections of glucocorticoid (triamcinolone) or placebo to 106 patients with hip osteoarthritis. At 2, 4, 6, and 12 weeks after injection, they measured severity of hip pain at rest and while walking using a 10-point scale. Compared with the placebo group, the …