Recommendations by the experts of intra-articular therapy in athletes emerging from the FMSI Consensus Conference

Intra-articular therapy is commonly used in athletes. The Italian Sports Medicine Federation (FMSI) called a Consensus to shed light on the indications and procedures of intra-articular therapy in athletes and subjects engaging in professional or sport at non-agonistic level. Seventeen IA therapy experts from the FMSI representing multiple sporting disciplines in addition to a rheumatologist expert in intra-articular therapy, a radiologist expert in interventional ultrasound and a pediatrician, made up the Consensus Board. Through two meetings and two Delphi rounds, and after a systematic literature search, the consensus pinpointed open questions and respective recommendations. Only those recommendations that achieved an agreement of more than 66% were accepted. The systematic literature search produced 12 articles. The consensus processed 19 questions and their answers. Only the 15 recommendations that reached agreement of more than 66% were included in the recommendations; the remaining four were not accepted. The intensity of the recommendation was broad (range between 7.97-9.00). A research agenda of outstanding questions was also drawn up.