ORTHOPEDIC AREA   

Medicina dello Sport 2020 September;73(3):473-502

DOI: 10.23736/S0025-7826.20.03767-9

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Recommendations by the experts of intra-articular therapy in athletes emerging from the FMSI Consensus Conference

Giovanni BONI ¹ ✉, Silvana GIANNINI ², Gianfranco BELTRAMI ^{1, 3}, Gaetano IACHELLI ^{1, 4}, Guido LA ROSA ⁵, Antonio FRIZZIERO ⁶, Gianluca VADALÀ ⁷, Alberto MIGLIORE ⁸

¹ Federazione Medico Sportiva Italiana (FMSI), Rome, Italy; ² Diagnostic Imaging Department, Villa Stuart Sport Clinic Nursing home, Foro Italico University, Rome, Italy; ³ University of Parma, Parma, Italy; ⁴ Sports Medicine Service, Ragusa, Italy; ⁵ Villa Pia Pediatric Orthopedics Clinic, Rome, Italy; ⁶ Department of Medicine and Surgery, General Hospital, University of Parma, Parma, Italy; ⁷ Unit of Orthopedics e Traumatology, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Campus Bio-Medico University, Rome, Italy; ⁸ Unit of Rheumatology, San Pietro Fatebenefratelli Hospital, Rome, Italy

Intra-articular therapy is commonly used in athletes. The Italian Sports Medicine Federation (FMSI) called a Consensus to shed light on the indications and procedures of intra-articular therapy in athletes and subjects engaging in professional or sport at non-agonistic level. Seventeen IA therapy experts from the FMSI representing multiple sporting disciplines in addition to a rheumatologist expert in intra-articular therapy, a radiologist expert in interventional ultrasound and a pediatrician, made up the Consensus Board. Through two meetings and two Delphi rounds, and after a systematic literature search, the consensus pinpointed open questions and respective recommendations. Only those recommendations that achieved an agreement of more than 66% were accepted. The systematic literature search produced 12 articles. The consensus processed 19 questions and their answers. Only the 15 recommendations that reached agreement of more than 66% were included in the recommendations; the remaining four were not accepted. The intensity of the recommendation was broad (range between 7.97-9.00). A research agenda of outstanding questions was also drawn up.

KEY WORDS: Osteoarthritis; Intra-articular injections; Viscosupplementation; Hyaluronic acid; Consensus