Hyaluronic acid or platelet-rich plasma in the treatment of hip osteoarthritis?

Ross A. Hauser, MD, Danielle R. Steilen-Matias, MMS, PA-C

Hyaluronic acid or platelet-rich plasma in the treatment of hip osteoarthritis?

In your quest to avoid a hip replacement surgery you may have been recommended hyaluronic acid injections. The thinking behind this, as we will see, is that by injecting a lubricant (hyaluronic acid) into the hip, bone on bone pressure can be relieved. Surprisingly there is not a lot of research on the effectiveness of this treatment. One could speculate that the reasoning for this is that the treatment will probably help in the short term, but it does not represent a treatment that can prevent the eventual need for a hip replacement. In essence, with hyaluronic acid injections for hip osteoarthritis, you are simply buying time and stalling the need for the surgery. Worse, the injections may offer no help and your hip condition will continue to worsen.

Buying time is appealing to those who work at physically demanding jobs, those who want to continue with sports, or those who are caregivers for others with worse medical problems than their own. Solving their hip pain problems without surgery is of course the ultimate goal. Unfortunately, hyaluronic acid injections for hip osteoarthritis have not been shown to be an effective treatment for the avoidance of surgery and provide that ultimate goal.

“But my doctor says to get the gel shots”

Some people do very well with hyaluronic acid injections for their hip problems. In the short term. We usually do not see these short-term benefits people in our office. We see the people now beyond the short-term and the useful effectiveness of hyaluronic acid injections.

Gel shots or “viscosupplementation,” are usually not the first, second, or even third-line treatment for hip osteoarthritis. They are usually given when other treatments have failed to alleviate your hip pain. These treatments include the typical conservative care of corticosteroid injections, pain medications, and anti-inflammatory medications. In some instances, physical therapy and yoga are recommended for hip pain patients.

But I have no cartilage in my hips

As just discussed, someone will usually consider hyaluronic acid injections for their hip problem as the fourth or fifth or more treatment. It is usually not the first-line choice and the reasoning is pointed out in the research below.

A typical patient story as to how they were recommended to hyaluronic acid injections for their hips goes something like this:

My doctor told me there was no cartilage left in both hips and I should have my hips replaced. She sent me to an orthopedist who told me the same thing, nothing can be done, I needed a bilateral hip replacement. I was faced with two options, if I get the surgery I would have to wait months to get it and I would still be in pain, try something else. As a compromise, the orthopedist recommended that I try the hyaluronic acid injections. When I asked, “will this help me avoid the hip replacement, the answer was no, “it will help me until I get the surgeries.” 

In theory, the idea of replacing or supplementing the protective and lubricating fluids of the hip sound like a good idea.

The idea that hyaluronic acid injections will help is based on a good idea. In theory, the idea of replacing or supplementing the protective and lubricating fluids of the hip sound like it can be a solution. So why is it not the first line of treatment for hip osteoarthritis and why do leading research centers suggest that the treatments do not work as well as hoped? Because it really does not help.

In January 2019, research led by doctors at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago wrote these opinions in the medical journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage. (1)

CONCLUSION: No better than the Placebo

These findings were also confirmed by researchers in August 2019 in the journal Medical Science Monitor. (2) They wrote: “Intravenous viscosupplementation does not reduce pain or improve function significantly better than placebo in a short-term follow-up. The benefits and safety of viscosupplementation should be further assessed by sufficiently-sized, methodologically sound studies with validated assessment of more clinically relevant end-points.”

A March 2020 study in the Journal of Orthopaedics (3) also found that:

Opposing views – Hyaluronic acid injections provided pain relief, functional improvement, and no severe complications on an immediate short-term basis. However, the results do not favor treatment with high molecular weight hyaluronic acid injection over other treatment methods.

In the Pakistani Journal of Ayub Medical College, (4) doctors treating hip pain patients made these observations on the different molecular weights gels available. Was thicker better? There seemed to be no research on that. Here is what they wrote:

“A multitude of conservative treatments is used for pain relief and functional improvement including acetaminophen, NSAID, intra-articular corticosteroid, and viscosupplementation. Different preparations of viscosupplementation based on different molecular weights are commercially available.” The researchers then examined the use of intra-articular high molecular weight hyaluronic acid injection for the hip joint by reviewing four previous studies on Hyaluronic acid injections effectiveness.

Doctors writing in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation say: “We do not recommend viscosupplementation for hip osteoarthritis”

Researchers in Brazil publishing in the August 2017 edition of Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (5) had this to say about using hyaluronic acid injections for hip osteoarthritis:

That recommendation is because the steroid and viscosupplementation both showed the same small benefit of pain relief over the short term. But if you don’t recommend viscosupplementation, how can you recommend viscosupplementation over steroids? Why not recommend the placebo?

This research was cited and referenced in an August 2019 study published in the journal Medical Science Monitor (6) where a similar conclusion was reached:

So why do doctors keep offering hyaluronic acid injections for hip pain? Because it may help someone

In March 2020 Orthopaedics, (7) doctors at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic wrote this:

“There is a lack of agreement among providers and governing agencies regarding the efficacy of hyaluronic acid for the management of hip osteoarthritis.” As the doctors point out that is clearly demonstrated in the research. What the Cleveland Clinic’s doctors want to demonstrate in this research paper was how hyaluronic acid injections impacts 1) patient-reported outcome measures and (do people say they are getting better?) 2) rates of conversion to total hip replacement.

In this research, the doctors examined 39 published outcome studies that included 5,864 patients receiving injections of hyaluronic acid. What did they find?

“There was inconsistent evidence across studies regarding the effectiveness of hyaluronic acid compared to other intra-articular injections. The formulation of the administered viscosupplementation did not appear to influence outcomes. Furthermore, rates of conversion to total hip replacement were relatively low when evaluating 1- to 4-year follow-up intervals.

Non-comparative studies consistently demonstrated that hyaluronic acid injections can achieve satisfactory pain reduction and functional improvement. However, there was not enough evidence in the current literature regarding whether hyaluronic acid is superior to placebo or other types of intra-articular injections.”

More on high molecular weight hyaluronic acid

A September 2021 study led by Australian researchers and published in the journal BioMed Central musculoskeletal disorders (8)  found that in 87 patients treated with high molecular weight hyaluronic acid, one injection would provide benefit is many patients assessed at six weeks after the injection.

Hymovis treatment

Italian researchers writing in the Journal of Clinical Orthopaedics and Trauma (9) investigated the safety and performance of Hymovis injection, a hyaluronic acid-derivative, used to manage symptomatic hip osteoarthritis in active middle-aged sportsmen over a 24-month observation period.

Patient profile:

Hyaluronic acid injections, Cortisone, and Saline Lavage

December 2020 (10) study examined a more aggressive approach to helping patients avoid a hip replacement. Here the doctors tested the idea that Hylan G-F20 (Synvisc) improves saline lavage (the injection of large amounts of saline solution into the hip and then draining it out to in essence “power-wash” away inflamed synovial fluid, floated pieces of cartilage, and other impurities floating in the hip) and triamcinolone injection.

After examining 82 patients in the study group for improvements in pain and range of motion at baseline, one month, three months, six months, and twelve months, post-injection the patients who had the lavage procedure, the cortisone, and the Synvisc had an improved external rotation since the first postoperative month and maintained the results up to a year. However, all groups showed clinically relevant improvements. No differences were found between the groups in any subjective evaluations

Conclusion: “Hip lavage and triamcinolone injection, with or without the use of (Synvisc), improves pain, function, and quality of life up to a year in hip osteoarthritis patients. Hylan may improve Range of motion up to one year.”

The point here is that these doctors are presenting an option to hip replacement. They are looking for ways to improve the treatments they offer. Here they suggested Synvisc may help achieve that goal, the understanding is the lavage and cortisone worked just as well without the Synvisc as with the Synvisc.

Eleven studies compare PRP to hyaluronic acid viscosupplementation

In this article, we will limit the discussion of PRP to a direct comparison to viscosupplementation.

Platelet Rich Plasma injections and Prolotherapy injections for Hip Osteoarthritis


In basic terms, Platelet Rich Plasma injections are the application of concentrated blood platelets, which contain and release growth factors to stimulate recovery in non-healing injuries. The video describes the technique, the research below describes the results. Prolotherapy is an injection technique utilizing simple sugar or dextrose.

We do not use PRP treatments in isolation. As we have discussed in this article, hip osteoarthritis and hip instability are problems that a single injection, for the most part, has not been shown to be effective in the long term as attested to in the research above.

Will PRP work for your hip osteoarthritis?

If you have come upon this page, it is likely that you have received a recommendation for Platelet Rich Plasma Injections for your hip pain and you are doing your research. We are going to try to offer help with that research, but first, we would like to take a moment to describe how we offer Platelet Rich Plasma Injections for your hip pain as opposed to how you may have been offered this treatment in other offices.

There are some doctors who warn against PRP use. Doctors at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, wrote in the journal Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine, (11) December 2018, “PRP is a costly treatment not covered by insurance, and clinical trials have not demonstrated definitive efficacy, we recommend informing patients when providing PRP ‘off-label.” Like any medical treatment, PRP will not fix everything. For some patients, PRP will not work for their hip pain for various reasons, generally speaking, a condition of hip degenerative disease that is “too far gone.”

Further, doctors stress that patients be evaluated for the realistic candidacy of treatment. PRP should only be offered when there is a realistic expectation that the patient is considered a good candidate for treatment success. A multinational team of researchers also writing in the journal Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine (12) June 2019 suggested: “Although PRP is safe to use and it can be easily applied in the clinics, case-specific considerations are needed to determine whether PRP could be beneficial or not. If the use of PRP is favored, then, the configuration/optimization of the preparation and administration/delivery strategy with or without a concomitant treatment may further enhance the clinical outcomes and patients’ experience.”

We invite you to read our article The evidence for Platelet Rich Plasma therapy for treating Hip Osteoarthritis for a further discussion of PRP treatments

Study: PRP showed significantly better results than hyaluronic acid groups.

A multi-national team of researchers from Israel, the United States, Italy, and Portugal published their findings in the medical journal Cartilage (13) which suggested beneficial results for PRP Platelet Rich Plasma therapy in the treatment of hip osteoarthritis. In this research 29, medical studies were evaluated. In eleven of them, a comparison was made between PRP and hyaluronic acid injections. The doctors noted that patients treated with PRP showed significantly better results than hyaluronic acid groups.

Doctors in Italy publishing in the American Journal of Sports Medicine (14) also evaluated the effectiveness of intra-articular platelet-rich plasma injections versus hyaluronic acid injections for hip osteoarthritis.

A total of 111 patients were randomly assigned to 3 different study groups and each received 3 weekly injections of either

“My doctor says he/she wants to give me both PRP and Hyaluronic Acid”

The idea is that while PRP rebuilds hip tissue, Hyaluronic Acid will act as a lubricant to help the PRP work better. As the research shows that did not happen.

The conclusion the doctors reached was that their results indicated that intra-articular PRP injections offer a significant clinical improvement in patients with hip osteoarthritis without relevant side effects.

The benefit was significantly more stable up to 12 months as compared with the other tested treatments. The addition of PRP + Hyaluronic Acid did not lead to a significant improvement in pain symptoms.

In another study in the medical journal Orthopedics, doctors said both PRP and Hyaluronic acid worked well for patients with hip osteoarthritis, these researchers however offered a conflicting assessment.

Intra-articular injections of platelet-rich plasma and hyaluronic acid represent effective medical treatments for osteoarthritis. This study’s goals were to compare the clinical efficacy of the platelet-rich plasma and hyaluronic acid at 12-month follow-up in hip osteoarthritis patients.

One hundred patients with chronic hip were consecutively enrolled and randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups:

The conclusion these researchers reached was: Intra-articular injections of PRP are effective in terms of functional improvement and pain reduction but are not superior to hyaluronic acid in patients with symptomatic hip osteoarthritis at 12-month follow-up. (15)

While these studies show good results, we find more effective results can be achieved by treating the whole hip joint and surrounding ligaments and tendons to stabilize hip instability. Please read our article The evidence that alternatives for a hip replacement may work for you

Summary and contact us. Can we help you?

We hope you found this article informative and it helped answer many of the questions you may have surrounding your hip problems.  If you would like to get more information specific to your challenges please email us: Get help and information from our Caring Medical staff

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References:

1 Brander V, Skrepnik N, Petrella RJ, Jiang GL, Accomando B, Vardanyan A. Evaluating the use of intra-articular injections as a treatment for painful hip osteoarthritis: a randomized, double-blind, multicenter, parallel-group study comparing a single 6-mL injection of hylan GF 20 with saline. Osteoarthritis and cartilage. 2019 Jan 1;27(1):59-70.  [Google Scholar]
2 Liao YY, Lin T, Zhu HX, Shi MM, Yan SG. Intra-Articular Viscosupplementation for Patients with Hip Osteoarthritis: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review. Medical science monitor: international medical journal of experimental and clinical research. 2019;25:6436. [Google Scholar]
3 Acuña AJ, Samuel LT, Jeong SH, Emara AK, Kamath AF. Viscosupplementation for hip osteoarthritis: Does systematic review of patient-reported outcome measures support use?. J Orthop. 2020;21:137‐149. Published 2020 Mar 25. doi:10.1016/j.jor.2020.03.016 [Google Scholar]
4 Ali SM, Farooqui SF, Sahito B, Ali M, Khan AA, Naeem O. Clinical Outcomes Of Intra-Articular High Molecular Weight Hyaluronic Acid Injection For Hip Osteoarthritis-A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. 2021;33(2). [Google Scholar]
5 Leite VF, Amadera JE, Buehler AM. Viscosupplementation for hip osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy for pain, disability and adverse events. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2017 Aug 11. [Google Scholar]
6 Liao YY, Lin T, Zhu HX, Shi MM, Yan SG. Intra-Articular Viscosupplementation for Patients with Hip Osteoarthritis: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review. Med Sci Monit. 2019;25:6436‐6445. Published 2019 Aug 27. doi:10.12659/MSM.916955 [Google Scholar]
7 Acuña AJ, Samuel LT, Jeong SH, Emara AK, Kamath AF. Viscosupplementation for hip osteoarthritis: Does systematic review of patient-reported outcome measures support use?. Journal of orthopaedics. 2020 Sep 1;21:137-49.
8 Long DM, Fitzpatrick J. Safety and efficacy of a single intra-articular injection of hyaluronic acid in osteoarthritis of the hip: a case series of 87 patients. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2021 Dec;22(1):1-7. [Google Scholar]
9 Rando G, Pastorino R. Intra-articular Hymovis injection for managing hip OA in active sportsmen. A 24-month observational retrospective clinical investigation. Journal of Clinical Orthopaedics and Trauma. 2021 Sep 14:101594. [Google Scholar]
10 Rezende MU, Gurgel HM, Ocampos GP, Campos GC, Frucchi R, Pailo AF, Pasqualin T, Vicente JR, Camargo OP. Improvements in hip osteoarthritis with lavage, triamcinolone and hylan g-f20. Acta Ortopédica Brasileira. 2020 Dec;28(6):280-6. [Google Scholar]
11 Jones IA, Togashi RC, Vangsness CT. The economics and regulation of PRP in the evolving field of orthopedic biologics. Current reviews in musculoskeletal medicine. 2018 Dec 1;11(4):558-65. [Google Scholar]
12 Cengiz IF, Pereira H, Espregueira-Mendes J, Reis RL, Oliveira JM. The Clinical Use of Biologics in the Knee Lesions: Does the Patient Benefit?. Current reviews in musculoskeletal medicine. 2019 Sep 15;12(3):406-14. [Google Scholar]
13 Laver L, Marom N, Dnyanesh L, Mei-Dan O, Espregueira-Mendes J, Gobbi A. PRP for Degenerative Cartilage Disease: A Systematic Review of Clinical Studies. Cartilage. 2016 Sep 1:1947603516670709.[Google Scholar]
14 Dallari D, Stagni C, Rani N, Sabbioni G, Pelotti P, Torricelli P, Tschon M, Giavaresi G.Ultrasound-Guided Injection of Platelet-Rich Plasma and Hyaluronic Acid, Separately and in Combination, for Hip Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Controlled Study. Am J Sports Med. 2016 Mar;44(3):664-71. doi: 10.1177/0363546515620383. Epub 2016 Jan 21. [Google Scholar]
15 Battaglia M, Guaraldi F, Vannini F, Rossi G, Timoncini A, Buda R, Giannini S. Efficacy of ultrasound-guided intra-articular injections of platelet-rich plasma versus hyaluronic acid for hip osteoarthritis. Orthopedics. 2013 Dec;36(12):e1501-8. [Google Scholar]

This article was updated October 20, 2021

 

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