Summary. Treatment of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (OA) of the ankle joint remains an issue of modern orthopedics. Conservative therapy may lose its effect over time or cause considerable side effects. Intra-articular injections are successfully used in the treatment of ОA in other major joints, so it has been hypothesized that they also may be effective in patients with ankle OA.
Objective: to analyze the literature devoted to injection methods of treatment of post-traumatic ankle OA.
Material and Methods. The search for publications which evaluated the effectiveness of intra-articular therapy in reducing pain and improving function in the treatment of ankle OA was conducted on PubMed databases, from 2007 to 2022. Intra-articular therapy included corticosteroids (CS), hyaluronic acid (HA), platelet-rich plasma (PRP), mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), botulinum toxin A (BoNT-A), prolotherapy, and bone marrow aspirate.
Results. 146 publications related to intra-articular therapy in the treatment of ankle OA were found. 40 publications were selected for analysis, of which there were 11 randomized controlled studies and 4 meta-analyses; other publications were of III and IV levels of evidence. The number of literature sources related to the effectiveness of intra-articular therapy was as follows: HA – 24, CS – 3, BoNT-A – 1, PRP – 5, MSc – 1, prolotherapy – 2, and bone marrow aspirate – 1.
Conclusions. Intra-articular therapy may be effective in the treatment of post-traumatic OA of the ankle joint. However, modern literature data in this area are mostly of poor quality and consist of small sample studies. Since there are currently no studies comparing these techniques, it is difficult to determine whether one type of injection therapy should be preferred over another. This determines the need for further research, especially regarding the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness and long-term safety of these treatments.