To perform a critical review of the published therapeutic trials conducted in hand osteoarthritis (OA).
A Medline research was performed to select the clinical trials in hand OA published since 1994.
Twenty-five published studies were identified by this research, of which 10 were reported in abstract or short report forms. The trials were classified according to the study drug, and their methods and results examined. The critical analysis focuses on the design, the inclusion and efficacy criteria and the methodological limitations in all of these studies.
Methodological restrictions of the studies are elucidated, such as the need for a consensus on diagnosis of hand OA, the need of valid, reliable and sensitive to change clinical assessment tools and validated radiological assessment methods in order to conduct trials in the future.