Ricerc@Sapienza

We read with great interest the study by Clementi et al.
that would like to explore the efcacy of a single intraarticular
injection of ultra-high molecular weight hyaluronic
acid in patients with hip osteoarthritis. Actually, we
believe that investigating just patients’ clinical status using
VAS and WOMAC scale should have been supported by
further information. In fact, in order to have more data that
could infuence the recent clinical practice, it is important to
consider also  the efect that the intra-articular injection of
ultra-high molecular weight hyaluronic acid could have on
walking biomechanics using an objective measurement tool
as gait analysis. In our opinion, the work by Clementi and
colleagues is very important and useful especially for the
long-term follow-up. Osteoarthritis is a theme currently representing
a hot topic because the number of people afected
by this pathology in the world is growing and this situation
is a burden for healthcare system. Hence, modern medicine
will meet, more and more, this issue. From this point of
view, we believe that osteoarthritis management and rehabilitation
should be performed by objectifying functional
alterations using movement analysis instrumentations. The
use of gait analysis should be desirable during diagnosis
and follow-up . Gait analysis is able to assess diferent
walking patterns in patient with osteoarthritis of the lower
limbs, whereas the radiology can evaluate the status of the
joint’s structures. Moreover, gait analysis  allows to identify
the precise altered sub-phase of the walking cycle, permitting
adequate prescription of a rehabilitation protocol, giving
to the clinician information about kinematic and kinetic
alterations and also about the muscle activity. Finally, gait
analysis is easily applicable to the most of patients, without
side efects. Hence, this tool is ideal for repetitive follow-up
evaluations and allows assessing any variations of walking
biomechanics over time. Furthermore, gait analysis examinations
could represent very valid outcome measurements
in order  to understand the efcacy of injection therapy
to treat hip osteoarthritis. These evaluations should
be considered as a completion of clinical assessment, and
their use should be always considered in rehabilitation of
osteoarthritis.