To investigate the short-term clinical effect of arthroscopic debridement combined with sodium hyaluronate injection in the treatment of the early and medium stages of the knee osteoarthritis and the changes of serum related indexes.

Retrospective analysis of knee osteoarthritis patients admitted from July 2017 to May 2019 in Department of Orthopedics, Foshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, affiliated to Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. A total of 108 cases were included, and were divided into the control group (n=54) and the observation group (n=54) by random number table method. Both groups received arthroscopic knee joint debridement, the control group received placebo intra-articular injection after operation, and the observation group received sodium hyaluronate intra-articular injection after operation for four weeks and followed up for six months after treatment. The pain visual analogue scale (VAS), activity of daily living scale (ADL), Lysholm knee joint score, serum matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-1), cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), interleukin-1(IL-1), nitric oxide (NO) and ESR levels before and after treatment were compared between the two groups by t test. The complications of the two groups were recorded and chi-square test was used to analyze the difference.

After six months of treatment, ADL and Lysholm scores of the two groups were significantly higher than before treatment, and the observation group was higher than the control group after treatment (t=8.390, 11.690, P<0.05). After four weeks of treatment, the levels of serum MMP-1, COMP, IL-1, NO, ESR and VAS scores in the two groups were significantly lower than those before treatment, and the observation group was lower than the control group after treatment (t=26.284, 4.293, 5.023, 10.508, 5.351, 8.701, P<0.05). The incidence of complications in the observation group was 5.56%, while the control group was 16.67% (χ²=2.352, P>0.05).

Arthroscopic debridement combined with intraarticular sodium hyaluronate injections in the treatment of early and mid stages of the knee osteoarthritis can relieve pain, improve joint function, reduce inflammation and improve cartilage metabolism, but the long-term effect needs further study.