[Multidisciplinary meeting on application techniques for restitution of synovial fluid in patients with knee arthritis: update].

In the degradation of articular cartilage, functional limitation and pain cardinal signs of osteoarthritis underlies, as a central factor, the quantitative and qualitative alteration of hyaluronic acid, the main component of synovial fluid and cartilage, in a pathophysiological process influenced by a wide variety of risk factors whose impact complicates the disease and radically reduces the quality of life of the patient. Conventional pharmacological management for osteoarthritis is often insufficient. Fortunately, in our days, there are viscosupplements capable of improving, replacing and promoting the endogenous production of degraded hyaluronic acid in osteoarthritis. The use of these compounds requires the adherence to a set of specific techniques, designed for the correct intra-articular infiltration of the viscosupplement without the need to inflict an additional traumatic load on the patient; these techniques with special reference to the patient affected by knee osteoarthritis (gonarthritis) are described in this article, which also highlights the criteria for choosing the ideal viscosupplement, the one most similar to hyaluronic acid native in healthy young people, and one whose therapeutic use reports greater clinical benefits in the short and long term.