Intra-articular steroid injections for painful knees. Systematic review with meta-analysis.

Five randomized controlled trials were included in this meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy of intra-articular corticosteroid injections compared to placebo in patients with knee osteoarthritis. The outcomes of interest that were pooled using meta-analysis were a failure to reach a target pain outcome and pain scores on a visual analog scale (VAS). Significantly fewer patients receiving corticosteroid injections failed to achieve a target reduction in pain at 1 week and 3-4 weeks post-injection. At 6 weeks there was no significant difference in the percentage of patients failing to achieve a target reduction in pain between the corticosteroid and placebo groups. A similar trend was observed in VAS pain scores, with patients receiving corticosteroid injections reporting significantly lower pain scores at 1 week. However, this difference was no longer significant at 3-4 and 6-8 weeks. There were no adverse events reported with corticosteroid and placebo injections.