Joint Injections for Osteoarthritic Knee Pain

February 14, 2019 updated by: University of Wisconsin, Madison

The Efficacy of Prolotherapy in Osteoarthritic Knee Pain

The purpose of this study is to determine whether prolotherapy (PrT), a therapy based on injection of a sugar solution in and around the knee, can decrease pain and disability from knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

OA is a common, debilitating condition for which there is no cure and no known cause. Prolotherapy (PrT) is an injection-based therapy for chronic musculoskeletal pain in which an irritant solution is injected at painful ligaments and tendons to produce stronger connective tissue and decrease pain. Although limited studies suggest PrT is effective may be effective for low back pain, its use has not been rigorously studied in human clinical trials for osteoarthritis.

Participants in this study will be randomly assigned to receive one of three treatments: standard PrT, injections with a saline placebo, or a pamphlet with recommendations for home knee physical therapy. Injections will be given at Weeks 1, 5, and 9; injection group subjects will have the option to receive an additional 2 sets of injections. All participants will be assessed for a total of 1 year. A set of disease-specific and general quality-of-life questionnaires will be used to assess participants' outcomes . A randomized subset of participants (N=38)will receive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)of the knee at baseline and 52 weeks. At study completion, participants who did not receive PrT will have the option to receive up to five sessions of PrT at no cost. Data will be collected for this group (minus MRI) and will be analyzed separately. Enrollment is limited to residents of Southern Wisconsin.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

98

Phase

  • Phase 2
  • Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Wisconsin
      • Madison, Wisconsin, United States, 53704
        • Northeast Family Medical Center
      • Madison, Wisconsin, United States, 53792
        • University of Wisconsin General Clinical Research Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

37 years to 67 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Pain from knee osteoarthritis that has impacted life for 3 months to 10 years
  • X-ray results indicating knee osteoarthritis

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Knee osteoarthritis surgical candidate
  • History of total knee joint repair
  • Prior use of PrT
  • Prior fracture of the knee joint
  • Joint injection of steroids or other drugs within the past 3 months
  • Rheumatoid or inflammatory arthritis
  • Chronic use of narcotic medication
  • Other chronic pain diagnoses
  • diabetes mellitus
  • Body mass index (BMI) greater than 45
  • Unresolved litigation
  • Pregnancy
  • Co-morbidity that may interfere with the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Quadruple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Dextrose
Subjects in Group 1 receive PrT with 15% and 25% dextrose solution, as it is generally practiced in the US today.
Procedure: Dextrose Prolotherapy
Injection procedure: 50% dextrose is diluted with .9% 'normal' saline and 1% lidocaine to achieve 15% dextrose for ligament injections and 25% dextrose for intra-articular injection.
Other Names:
  • Dextrose
Placebo Comparator: Normal saline
Subjects in Group 2 will receive the same treatment as Group 1, except that a 0.9% 'normal' saline solution with no known benefit will be used instead of dextrose.
Procedure: Saline Prolotherapy
7 mL 9% 'normal' saline and 3mL 1% lidocaine
Other Names:
  • Saline
Other: Exercise
At-home physical therapy exercises as a non-injection control
Other: At-home physical therapy exercise group
Subjects in the at-home physical therapy exercise group will receive a patient information pamphlet about knee osteoarthritis and conservative care instructions for standard at-home physical therapy exercises
Other Names:
  • Exercise

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Quality of life, pain scores and disability at wks 0, 5, 9, 12, 24, 52
Time Frame: Participants will be followed for one year.
Participants will be followed for one year.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Secondary outcomes include disease and general quality of life indicators (all subjects) and magnetic resonance image (in a subset of 37 subjects).
Time Frame: Participants will be monitored for one year.
Participants will be monitored for one year.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Collaborators

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: David P. Rabago, MD, University of Wisconsin Dept of Family Medicine

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

July 1, 2004

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2008

Study Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 14, 2004

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 15, 2004

First Posted (Estimate)

June 16, 2004

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 15, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 14, 2019

Last Verified

February 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • H-2004-0112
  • K23AT001879-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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