Outcome of Joint Aspiration in Acute Knee Haemarthrosis in a Haemophilic Joint: A Prospective Randomised Controlled Trial in 120 Patients in a Tertiary Haemophilia Care Centre.

Background: Bleeding into the joints cause major morbidity in haemophilia patients. The clinical hallmark of haemophilia is haemarthrosis especially in knee, ankle and elbow joint. Current literature suggests that aspiration of an acute haemarthrosis in haemophilia may lead to further bleeding and prevent tamponade effect. But the rehabilitation gets delayed, leading to joint stiffness and the function gets deteriorated. This study was done to evaluate the efficacy of joint aspiration in the management of acute knee haemarthrosis, with regard to pain relief and functional outcome.

Materials And Methods: This is a prospective, randomised controlled trial in a tertiary care haemophilia treatment centre comprising 120 haemophilic patients with unilateral acute knee haemarthrosis. Factor level was checked and appropriate factor replacement [40%] was done. The patients were randomly allocated in two groups: Group A and Group B, each consisting of 60 patients. All patients received ice application, limb immobilisation, analgesics, physiotherapy and compression bandage as the routine primary management. In addition, study Group A also received therapeutic aspiration of the knee joint at initial presentation, after the first factor infusion. All patients were clinically evaluated for pain in terms of Visual Analogue Scale (VAS score) and function in terms of Haemophilic Joint Health Score [HJHS], before and at 4 h, 48 h and 7 days after initial factor administration.

Results: All patients showed therapeutic improvement in terms of a declining trend in VAS and HJHS scores. Pain relief (VAS Score) in Group A, was found to be significantly better compared to Group B at the end of 4 h [4.80 ± 0.49 vs 6.54 ± 1.05;  < 0.001], 48 h [2.48 ± 0.50 vs 3.30 ± 0.46;  < 0.001] and 7 days [1.16 ± 0.37 vs 1.70 ± 0.46;  < 0.001]. Functional improvement (HJHS Score) in Group A, was found to be significantly better compared to Group B as well at the end of 4 h [11.24 ± 0.77 vs 14.52 ± 0.61;  < 0.001], 48 h [7.24 ± 0.65 vs 11.28 ± 0.64;  < 0.001] and 7 days [2.36 ± 0.48 vs 5.52 ± 0.67;  < 0.001].

Conclusion: Our study recommends the use of joint aspiration as a therapeutic tool in the holistic management of acute knee haemarthrosis in addition to usual treatment of ice application, immobilization and oral tranexamic acid. Early factor replacement along with therapeutic joint aspiration is a key for better pain relief and a better functional outcome.