Effectiveness of the use of non-hydrolysed type II collagen in the treatment of osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of treating osteoarthritis with the use of type II non-denatured collagen (UCII). Methods: This is a study of systematic review and meta-analysis based on searches for randomized controlled clinical trials carried out in the PUBMED, SciELO, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar databases. 2009 and 2020 studies that analyzed the effectiveness of UCII in the treatment of patients with osteoarthritis using clinical and / or radiographic criteria and based on WOMAC and VAS scores were included. Results: A total of 4.850 references were found in the literature. When applying the inclusion criteria, there were only 4 studies suitable for selection, and 3 of them were possible to be included in the meta-analysis. All studies were carried out in patients with knee osteoarthritis and the total sample was 202 patients. Meta-analysis of WOMAC and VAS scores was performed in the three independent studies according to the intervention adopted, and heterogeneity was not significant in both (τ² = 0.0; I² = 0%). In the WOMAC and VAS scores, the point estimate for the difference in standardized means was -0.44 (95% CI=-0.72 to -0.16; 0.002) and -0.37 (95% CI = - 0.65 to -0.09; 0.010) respectively, thus, the intervention group had positive effects and favorable results compared to the control group. There was no publication bias for the WOMAC and VAS outcomes; Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, the use of the UCII is effective in the treatment of osteoarthritis to improve parameters of pain and mobility on WOMAC and VAS parameters