Ozone Knee Injection Therapy Shows Promise for Osteoarthritis

Other than joint replacement, not much works in treating osteoarthritis of the knee. A Brazilian research team said it has had success improving symptoms with intra-articular injections of ozone.

In a study of 98 osteoarthritis patients, Carlos de Jesus of the Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and colleagues said the patients in their multi-center study were randomized to injections of either ozone or placebo injections of air.

Both were treated once a week. In all, 63 patients in the ozone group and 35 in the placebo group completed the study. They had similar demographic profiles. The ozone group reported pain reduction and improvement in daily activities soon after the beginning of the intervention and continued to report such improvement during the treatment.

"Ozone had a remarkable effect on the treatment group patients' lives," the team wrote in an abstract presented at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA.

The treatments could forestall the need for joint replacement, the researchers said. The ozone was obtained from a generator.

In the US, the FDA has questioned the use of ozone generators for a variety of ailments and has confiscated some devices that were being advertised and promoted as cures. But ozone injections have successfully treated herniated discs.

The next step for the Brazilian researchers will be to do imaging of patients knees to see if there is a visible change in knee joints.