New treatment option for osteoarthritis

Results of a trial using Orthokine were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons in San Diego, February 14-18, in which 380 patients with knee osteoarthritis participated in a prospective, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled multicenter trial of Heinrich-Heine-University Dusseldorf, Germany. "Patients treated with intra-articular injections of Orthokine showed significantly better clinical improvement during the 26 weeks observation period compared to those injected with hyaluronic acid or saline," said principal investigator, Axel Baltzer, of the Center for Molecular Orthopedics. Orthokine treatment produced a significant reduction in pain scores (WOMAC, VAS) as well as improvement in health-related quality of life after seven, 13 and 26 weeks.

Orthokine is a medical device to produce an autologous conditioned serum (ACS) which contains anti-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1Ra and growth factors. "The trial shows that Orthokine is safe and effective not only for the treatment of sciatica but also against OA," said Dr Baltzer.