title: Hyaluronic acid in the management of osteoarthritis: injection therapies innovations.
abstract: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic degenerative joint disease characterized by pain and progressive functional limitation. Viscosupplementation with intra-articular (IA) hyaluronic acid (HA) could be a treatment option in OA, however recommendations made in different international guidelines for the non-surgical management of OA are not always concordant with regard to the role of IA injection therapies. Results from a recent Italian Consensus Conference underline how IA-HA to treat OA represents a widely used therapy in Italy. Specifically high molecular weight HA, cross-linked HA, and mobile reticulum HA are considered very useful to treat the OA joints from a great number of expert in Italy. These kinds of HA could reduce the NSAIDs intake, furthermore high-molecular weight and mobile reticulum HA are considered to be able to delay or avoid a joint prosthetic implant. This mini review highlights the results obtained from the Italian Consensus Conference "Appropriateness of clinical and organizational criteria for intra-articular injection therapies in osteoarthritis" and give further indication about innovation in IA-HA therapies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Valter
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Santilli
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paoloni
authors.affiliation: Fondazione "Don Carlo Gnocchi" Onlus.
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mangone
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Alviti
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bernetti
keywords: hyaluronic acid; injections; osteoarthritis