Common joint pain treatment may be making arthritis worse, studies suggest - Fox News

In the first study, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, studied patients who had been diagnoses osteoarthritis, the most common form of the disease, affecting more than 32 million adults in the U.S. 

Statistical analysis showed that corticosteroid knee injections were "significantly associated" with the overall progression of osteoarthritis in the knee. 

The group who received hyaluronic injections showed a decreased progression of osteoarthritis, specifically in marrow lesions, according to the study. 

In the second study, researchers at the Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science studied the progression of osteoarthritis in patients who received injections of corticosteroids and hyaluronic acid. 

Patients injected with corticosteroids had "significantly more" osteoarthritis progression – including medial joint space narrowing – than patients who received an injection of hyaluronic acid. 

"The results suggest that hyaluronic acid injections should be further explored for the management of knee osteoarthritis symptoms, and that steroid injections should be utilized with more caution," researcher and medical student Azad Darbandi said in a statement.