Does Larger Dose of Steroid Improve the Outcome of Intra-Articular Hip Injection?

Introduction: Intra-articular hip injection has been used to treat arthritic hip pain for decades. However there is no standardised recommended does and there has been variability amongst surgeons.Objective: We aimed to determine if larger dose of steroid injected improved the duration of pain relief.Patients and Method: We retrospectively reviewed, two matched groups of patients treated with variable doses of triamcinolone hip injection; Group A with 40mg and Group B with 80mg. The duration of pain relief after hip injection was recorded in days, weeks or months for patients in each group.Results: In Group A, 7 patients had no pain relief at all from the hip injection, 13 for only days (less than a week), 15 patients for weeks (up to 4 weeks) and 25 patients had complete pain relief till the time of follow-up at 3 months. Similarly in group B, 6 patients had no pain relief at all from hip injection, 14 for days, 18 patients for weeks and 22 patients for 3 months. The duration of pain relief from the hip injection for both Group A (6.2weeks) and B (6.1weeks) was similar with an overall average pain relief of 6.15weeks.Conclusion: 40mg of steroid had same duration of pain relief compared to 80mg of steroid for treating primary hip osteoarthritis