Microfragmented adipose tissue injections for knee OA may reduce pain, improve function
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Key takeaways:
- Microfragmented adipose tissue injections may yield significant improvements for patients with knee osteoarthritis.
- Patients had sustained pain relief and functional improvements at 1-year follow-up.
Published results showed microfragmented adipose tissue injections may yield clinically significant improvements for knee osteoarthritis pain, as well as improved function, compared with a saline control injection.
Dustin L. Richter, MD, from the division of sports medicine in the department of orthopedics at the University of New Mexico, and colleagues randomly assigned 75 patients with symptomatic knee OA confirmed on radiographs to receive a 7 mL injection of microfragmented adipose tissue (MFAT group; Lipogems), 2 mL injection of triamcinolone acetonide (Kenalog) mixed with 5 mL of 1% lidocaine (corticosteroid group) or a 7 mL injection of saline solution (control group).
According to the study, primary outcome measures included VAS pain, WOMAC and KOOS scores. Researchers assessed outcomes before the injection and at 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year after injection.
Overall, Richter and colleagues found patients who received the MFAT injection had clinically significant improvements for all pain and functional outcomes at all follow-up timepoints compared with the control group. They noted the corticosteroid group had clinically significant improvements at 2 weeks and 6 weeks compared with the control group.
Among the MFAT group, median KOOS pain score significantly improved compared with baseline from 18.05 at 2-week follow-up to 27.78 at 1-year follow-up. Among the control group, median KOOS pain score improvement from baseline was 11.11 at 2-week follow-up and 6.94 at 1-year follow-up.
Richter and colleagues found the corticosteroid group reached a maximum median KOOS pain score improvement of 22.22 at 2-week follow-up. However, they noted the improvement decreased to 13.89 at 1-year follow-up, which was not statistically significant from baseline.
Richter and colleagues noted similar trends were found for WOMAC and VAS scores among the groups.
“This finding indicates that MFAT may be a viable alternative treatment for patients with knee OA that fall into the orthopedic treatment gap,” Richter and colleagues wrote in the study.
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