Prolotherapy Versus Steroids for Thumb Carpo-metacarpal Joint Arthritis

• Status: Terminated
• Trial end date: 2010-07-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

Arthritis of the base of the thumb is a common debilitating problem. It is believed that laxity (loosening) of the joint leads to worsening arthritis in this joint. This can be treated by securing the joint surgically or symptoms can be treated with hand therapy and/or injection of corticosteroids. Recently prolotherapy (sugar water) has been shown to decrease looseness of joints and also be helpful for hand and knee arthritis. We hypothesize that prolotherapy injections for thumb arthritis will be equally or more beneficial to the patients than steroids.

• Phase: N/A
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Mayo Clinic
• Treatments: Betamethasone; Betamethasone acetate phosphate; Betamethasone benzoate; Betamethasone sodium phosphate; Betamethasone Valerate; Betamethasone-17,21-dipropionate; Pharmaceutical Solutions

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age >45

• Ability to make follow-up visits over the 6 month protocol

• Ability to give informed consent

• Eaton grade 2-3 thumb carpo-metacarpal joint osteoarthritis with pain over 3/10 on visual analogue scale with symptoms present greater then 6 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Recent trauma to the hand or wrist or fractures eeen on radiographs

• Eaton grade 1, or 4 joints affected

• Metabolic bone disease

• Recent systemic or localized infection (within last 2 weeks)

• History of rheumatologic disease

• Allergies to injected solutions

• Thumb carpo-metacarpal joint injections in the prior 6 months.