Effect of omega-3 on painful symptoms of patients with osteoarthritis of the synovial joints. Systematic review and meta-analysis
Bahamondes MA. Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology 5 February 2021
Objectives
The aim of this study was to determine the effect of omega-3 on the painful symptomatology of osteoarthritis (OA) in synovial joints,
Methods
Electronic/manual search was conducted (2004-2019). Using pain as primary outcome and stiffness/function and swelling as secondary outcomes, based on PRISMA criteria, CONSORT reporting quality and Cochrane/RoB-2 risk of bias assessment. Data was processed statistically by RevMan v5.2.
Results
Six randomized clinical trials (RCTs) were involved. The study population included 454 subjects with OA. In four studies the pain of the intervention group presented significantly favorable results compared with control (MD=22.89 CI=3.37-42.42) It was not possible to establish the effective anti-inflammatory dose. For stiffness/function and inflammation the number of studies was low (n=2).The evidence and degree of recommendation was 2B. The RCTs presented high clinical and methodological variability.
Conclusion
Omega-3 presents significant reduction of painful symptoms in patients suffering from OA in their synovial joints. However, the limited number of studies, the diversity of doses, intervention periods, baseline characteristics of patients, and asymmetry in reporting bias, combined with the heterogeneity in the combined effect of the studies, determined low quality evidence that did not allow offering a clinical guide.