Currently, non-surgical treatments for glenohumeral osteoarthritis (GH-OA) mainly aim to reduce pain. Autologous conditioned serum (ACS), Orthokine, an interleukin-1 inhibitor from the patient's own blood has an anti-inflammatory effect. The objective was to determine whether intra-articular injections of this ACS improved symptoms in patients with GH-OA and delayed the need for a shoulder replacement.
A total of 36 consecutive patients, 40 shoulders, with OA received up to 6-weekly intra-articular injections of ACS were included. Imaging of GH-OA, range of motion, visual analogue scale (VAS) pain, Shoulder Pain And Disability Index (SPADI), American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons and Constant scores were assessed pre-injection and post treatment at 3 months. At a minimum of 2 years, VAS and SPADI scores and whether anyone had progressed to a shoulder replacement were recorded.
Outcomes 3 months post-ACS injections demonstrated on average statistically significant improvement (P < 0.05) of all measurements: SPADI (54.3 ± 21.5 vs 43.7 ± 23.7), Constant score (50.5 ± 14.1 vs 57.1 ± 17.4), VAS pain (4.8 ± 2.2 vs 3.7 ± 2.4) and range of motion. Of these, 16 shoulders progressed to a shoulder replacement, nine cases quickly (0.6 ± 0.2 years) and seven cases were delayed by 3.1 ± 1.7 years. The other 18 cases had significant improvement in pain, SPADI (58.0 ± 19.6 to 31.8 ± 21.4; P < 0.01) scores and no progression to a shoulder replacement at 3.6 ± 1.0 years follow-up. There was no correlation of glenoid Walch score or joint space with clinical outcome parameters.
ACS injections in the shoulder joint for OA can reduce pain and disability, and postpone the need for a shoulder replacement.