Sodium hyaluronate, a drug which was approved by the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) to treat osteoarthritis of the knee several years ago, is also an effective treatment for shoulder pain, according to a new study from Columbia University Medical School which was presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting.
In the study, sodium hyaluronate reduced chronic pain by about 50% for patients with chronic osteoarthritis of the shoulder. These results are similar to the 1998 study which led the FDA to approve sodium hyaluronate for treating osteoarthritis of the knee. The use of sodium hyaluronate to treat shoulder pain is currently under review by the FDA.
Photo by Goldstein (stockxpert)
Euflexxa successfully relieved my father’s shoulder pain for over a year, nothing else helped. Insurance companies need to be able to approve the use of this injection for shoulder joints as well as the already knee and hip joints. It works.
Could this be used for elbow joint pain?
Melissa – Your Dr. can apply for “off label”use. I received the new shot (hyalgan/synvisc) for arthritis in a joint in the thumb and seems to have helped. Right now the drug is only approved for knees, but my “ex” got approval for use in the shoulder & it did help for a while. It would probably depend on what’s wrong w/your elbow. I believe the drug is meant to create a buffer where cartilage has been lost, creating arthritis.
Vak commented that you could apply for “off label” injections of synvisc (this would be shoulder arthritis). To whom would you apply? Who did Vak apply to? My husband is on Medicare.
A doctor can use a drug off-label without applying for anything; it happens all the time. The question is whether your insurance will cover an off-label indication for the med.