Expensive Arthritis Treatment No Better Than Steroid Therapy - 2013

Research Means Hope/AAMC—July 12, 2013

Research Means Hope is a campaign of the Association of American Medical Colleges and its member-medical schools and teaching hospitals to raise public awareness of the critical need for sustained federal investment in medical research conducted through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The research described at this link features Lisa Mandl, M.D.,MPH, a rheumatologist at Hospital for Special Surgery.

A randomized, double-blind clinical trial by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery has revealed that corticosteroids are more effective than the more expensive treatment, hylan G-F 20 (Synvisc One, Genzyme Biosurgery), in providing pain relief to patients with thumb arthritis. The study also showed that both of these commonly used treatments provided clinically meaningful pain relief, but so did a placebo injection.

Read more about this research at medresearch.tumblr.com.