Effects of medications on incidence and risk of knee and hip joint replacement in patients with osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the incidence and risk of knee and hip replacement in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) treated with different medications.

METHODS

OVID MEDLINE, OVID EMBASE, Cochrane and Web of Science electronic databases were searched from inception to May 4th, 2022. Clinical trials, including randomized controlled trials, cohort studies and case-control studies, were selected. The meta-analysis effect size was estimated using either incidence with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) or odds ratio (OR)/relative risk (RR) with 95% CIs. The risk of bias and heterogeneity among studies were assessed and analyzed.

RESULTS

Forty studies were included, involving 6,041,254 participants. The incidence of joint replacement in patients with OA varied according to the study design and treatments. The incidence of knee arthroplasty varied from 0 to 70.88%, while the incidence of hip arthroplasty varied from 11.71 to 96.43%. Compared to non-users, bisphosphonate users had a reduced risk of knee replacement (RR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.66-0.77; adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.70-0.83). Compared to intra-articular corticosteroid users, hyaluronic acid (HA) users had a higher risk of knee arthroplasty (RR = 1.76, 95% CI: 1.38-2.25). No publication bias was observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Bisphosphonate treatment is associated with a reduced risk of knee replacement. More studies are needed to validate our results due to the limited number of eligible studies and high heterogeneity among studies.