
Shoulder & Elbow
Network meta-analysis of injection therapies for lateral epicondylitis
Br J Sports Med. 2016 Aug;50(15):900-8. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2014-094387. Epub 2015 Sep 21
27 randomized controlled trials (RCT) were included in this bayesian network meta-analysis to provide a comprehensive comparison of injection therapies for lateral epicondylitis. A total of 13 therapies were identified from the literature. The results from this study indicated that for pain reduction, hyaluronic acid and prolotherapy injections were ranked one and two, respectively. However, the fact hyaluronic acid and prolotherapy were each only evaluated in one study highlights the need for additional research. While corticosteroid injections are the most frequently used injection therapy, this analysis indicates it provides suboptimal results, ranking 11th out of 13 treatments. The collection of data at 26 weeks may have led to corticosteroid injections to rank lower due to the transient benefit typically observed for this treatment.
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