Hyaluronic Acid Knee Procedures Grow 38% from Q3 2006 ...( Orthopedic Surgeons and Rheumato...)

Orthopedic Surgeons and Rheumatologists Performing More Procedures

WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Millennium Research Group's US Hyaluronic Acid (HA) Viscosupplementation Marketrack(TM) service, which captures data from both orthopedic surgeons and rheumatologists, shows that both groups provided more HA knee injections in Q3 2007 compared to Q3 2006. While treatments are growing in both groups, there are substantial differences in the products they use in these procedures.

In the survey sample, from Q3 2006 to Q3 2007, average quarterly orthopedic surgeon HA knee injection volumes jumped from 62 to nearly 85. Similarly, over the same time period, average quarterly HA knee injections for rheumatologists increased from 54 to over 75. Fueling this growth is the growing aging population, which is expanding the potential patient pool for HA viscosupplementation each year. In addition, expanding patient awareness of the benefits of HA viscosupplementation injections is also increasing the number of patients seeking and ultimately receiving treatment.

"While both groups' injection numbers are rising, they are using different products," says Kevin Flewwelling, Senior Analyst at MRG. "It turns out that in Q307, orthopedic surgeons mostly used Genzyme's Synvisc, which represented nearly 39% of the total injections administered by orthopedic surgeons. Rheumatologists, on the other hand, tended to use sanofi aventis' Hyalgan most often, which accounted for almost 36% of the total injections administered by this group."

When both groups were asked to rank the most important reasons for prescribing HA viscosupplementation, orthopedic surgeons ranked product efficacy as their number one reason, while rheumatologists reported long-term pain relief as their first priority.

About Hyaluronic Acid Viscosupplementation Marketrack(TM)

HA Viscosupplementation Marketrack(TM) gathers data from 260 orthopedic surgeons, rheumatologis
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