Steroid Injections for Hip Osteoarthritis — Not Necessarily Benign

Patients with hip osteoarthritis sometimes receive intra-articular steroid injections to relieve pain, but some reports have suggested that these injections occasionally cause rapid destruction of the hip joint. To provide further data, researchers at an integrated healthcare system in Hawaii conducted a study of patients with rapidly destructive hip disease (RDHD) who were seen between 2013 and 2016. RDHD was characterized by recently worsening hip pain and specified radiographic changes (including complete disappearance of the joint space, deformed femoral head and acetabulum, and upward displacement of the femoral head).

In a case-control analysis, 40 patients with RDHD were compared with 717 controls who underwent total hip replacement f…