Hypertonic Dextrose Versus Corticosteroid Intra-Articular Injections for the Treatment of Trapeziometacarpal Arthritis

Carpometacarpal osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative condition of the hand that causes pain, stiffness and weakness. It is the second most common site of degenerative disease in the hand after arthritis of the distal interphalangeal joints. The prevalence of symptomatic hand OA in people over 70 years of age has been estimated as 13.4 % for men and 26.2 % for women. OA is more frequent in older age groups, leading to considerable disability with a burden on health services and on the economy. Risk factor for carpometacarpal osteoarthritis of the thumb includes being female, middle age, previous trauma, repetitive use and inflammatory joint disease. Lifetime prevalence of this condition approaches 10%.

Injections are a useful conservative treatment modality prior to considering surgical treatment. Corticosteroid injection is helpful in the treatment of the disease, but some patients gain only short-term benefits. Evolving reports are showing promising results for the application of dextrose as an alternative method for the treatment of Carpometacarpal osteoarthritis, based on their induction for growth factors and inflammatory mediators. For instance, prolotherapy has been used as a treatment of musculoskeletal pain with various etiologies. It has been suggested that prolotherapy induces little inflammation and stimulates endogenous repair especially by prompting release of growth factors. Dextrose is an agent commonly used for prolotherapy.

The evolving reports form recent studies are creating a promise on the potential use of dextrose injections for treating arthritis and replacing current method of treating early OA by corticosteroids by giving long standing effect and improving patients' symptoms and function. Over the past 5 years, an increasing number of level I and level II studies have emerged, examining the effect of intra-articular prolotherapy for the treatment of both hip and knee osteoarthritis. On the contrary, there is limited data in small joints, such as the temporomandibular joint.