Viscosupplementation for Osteoarthritis of the Knee
Authors: Peter Jüni, Anne W.S. Rutjes, Bruno R. da Costa, Stephan Reichenbach
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2013)

Letters1 January 2013Viscosupplementation for Osteoarthritis of the KneePeter Jüni, MD, Anne W.S. Rutjes, PhD, Bruno R. da Costa, PhD, and Stephan Reichenbach, MD, MScPeter Jüni, MDFrom Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland., Anne W.S. Rutjes, PhDFrom Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland., Bruno R. da Costa, PhDFrom Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland., and Stephan Reichenbach, MD, MScFrom Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.Author, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-158-1-201301010-00020 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail IN RESPONSE:Drs. Navarro-Sarabia and Herrero-Beaumont raised numerous concerns about our systematic review on viscosupplementation for knee osteoarthritis. The number of patients randomly assigned per group was indeed unclear in their trial (1). They referred to 306 patients who were randomly assigned but did not report how many of those patients were allocated to receive hyaluronic acid and placebo. They merely described that 149 patients received hyaluronic acid and 152 patients received placebo after exclusion of 5 randomly assigned patients for whom they had no postrandomization efficacy data.With regard to concealment of allocation, we still do not understand the ...References1. Navarro-Sarabia F, Coronel P, Collantes E, Navarro FJ, de la Serna AR, Naranjo A, et al; AMELIA study group. A 40-month multicentre, randomised placebo-controlled study to assess the efficacy and carry-over effect of repeated intra-articular injections of hyaluronic acid in knee osteoarthritis: the AMELIA project. Ann Rheum Dis. 2011;70:1957-62. [PMID: 21852252] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar2. Jüni P, Altman DG, Egger M. Systematic reviews in health care: Assessing the quality of controlled clinical trials. BMJ. 2001;323:42-6. [PMID: 11440947] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar3. Wandel S, Jüni P, Tendal B, Nüesch E, Villiger PM, Welton NJ, et al. Effects of glucosamine, chondroitin, or placebo in patients with osteoarthritis of hip or knee: network meta-analysis. BMJ. 2010;341:c4675. [PMID: 20847017] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar4. da Costa BR, Rutjes AW, Johnston BC, Reichenbach S, Nüesch E, Tonia T, et al. Methods to convert continuous outcomes into odds ratios of treatment response and numbers needed to treat: meta-epidemiological study. Int J Epidemiol. 2012;41:1445-1459. [PMID: 23045205] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar5. Berlin JA, Santanna J, Schmid CH, Szczech LA, Feldman HI. Anti-Lymphocyte Antibody Induction Therapy Study Group. Individual patient- versus group-level data meta-regressions for the investigation of treatment effect modifiers: ecological bias rears its ugly head. Stat Med. 2002;21:371-87. [PMID: 11813224] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAuthors: Peter Jüni, MD; Anne W.S. Rutjes, PhD; Bruno R. da Costa, PhD; Stephan Reichenbach, MD, MScAffiliations: From Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.Disclosures: Disclosures can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M11-3078. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoViscosupplementation for Osteoarthritis of the Knee Anne W.S. Rutjes , Peter Jüni , Bruno R. da Costa , Sven Trelle , Eveline Nüesch , and Stephan Reichenbach Viscosupplementation for Osteoarthritis of the Knee Federico Navarro-Sarabia and Gabriel Herrero-Beaumont Metrics Cited byTreatment of OsteoarthritisGender Disparities in Osteoarthritis-Related Health Care Utilization Before Total Knee ArthroplastyCurrent Concepts 1 January 2013Volume 158, Issue 1Page: 75KeywordsAbsolute risk reductionConflicts of interestDisclosureDrugsIntent to treat analysisKneesOdds ratioOsteoarthritisSystematic reviews ePublished: 1 January 2013 Issue Published: 1 January 2013 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2013 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...