Novel Intra-articular Injections for Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a group of chronic, painful, disabling condition affecting synovial joints. OA is the most common among elderly people. Approximately 80% of population above 65 years of age suffers from OA and this value reaches near to 100% with increasing age. Currently available treatments of OA provide symptomatic relief or slow the progression of disease. The oral or parenteral administration of these drugs causes serious systemic side effects leading to even withdrawal of certain drugs from market. To overcome these problems, localized IA drug delivery presents a new hope. A number of drugs have been investigated for their local effect after IA administration. A number of novel drug delivery systems are available for their own merits and demerits. This review discusses the pathophysiology of OA and formulation consideration of IA injections along with details of current and novel drug formulation for OA treatments.