medwireNews: EULAR has developed evidence-based recommendations on the use of intra-articular therapy (IAT) in adult patients with peripheral arthropathies.
The authors say that there is “wide variation” in the use and delivery of IAT – such as glucocorticoids, local anesthetics, and hyaluronic acid – in this population, and these guidelines are “the first evidence and expert opinion-based recommendations to guide health professionals using IAT.”
The guidance was developed by an international multidisciplinary taskforce led by Jacqueline Uson, from Universitario Móstoles in Madrid, Spain. The team has issued recommendations on a number of points, including patient information, antiseptic care, efficacy and safety of repeated injections, safety in special populations, use of local anesthetics, and aftercare.
Uson and co-authors say their guidelines “assume that ‘best practice’ is the rationale for IAT and for the selection of the compound,” and caution that “the efficacy and safety of the specific IATs [and] indications for the different arthropathies” were outside the scope of the recommendations.
They also note that “this project was carried out before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, so it does not include specific safety measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 viral infection nor measures to be used when having to deliver IAT to patients with COVID-19.”
The recommendations are published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.
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