ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Sodium hyaluronate injection has been used in many musculoskeletal diseases, including knee osteoarthritis, frozen shoulder, rheumatoid arthritis, and other tendon and soft tissue pain. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of sodium hyaluronate injection and corticosteroid injection in reducing the symptoms of plantar fasciitis. METHODS: Sixty-five patients with plantar fasciitis were randomly divided into two groups: sodium hyaluronate group (32 cases) and corticosteroid group (33 cases). Two groups of patients were injected with 2.5 mL of sodium hyaluronate (25 mg/2.5 mL) and compound betamethasone (5 mg of diprosone and 2 mg of betamethasone sodium phosphate) under the guidance of ultrasound, respectively. The treatment interval was 7 days, twice in total. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score, plantar fascia thickness and the American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle-hindfoot score were measured before treatment, 1 month and 3 months after treatment. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: At 1 month after treatment, compared with the baseline data, the VAS and plantar fascia thickness of the two groups decreased, and the AOFAS ankle-hindfoot score increased (P 0.05). To conclude, corticosteroids and sodium hyaluronate are both effective to treat plantar fasciitis, but the effect of corticosteroids is better within 1 month. To avoid the potential risk of corticosteroids, sodium hyaluronate can be a substitute of corticosteroids.