Infiltration With Corticosteroids in Tempormandibular Joint: Systematic Review

Objectives: Evaluate the effectiveness in the reduction of pain when infiltration with corticosteroids in TMJ disorders of joint and/or muscle type is performed.
Methods: A comprehensive electronic search strategy was held in Pubmed on July 2015; studies were selected independently by 2 reviewers according to established protocol following the parameter in "a quality assessment (Guide CASPE)" and "risk of bias (Manual Cochrane systematic reviews)" for the included studies.
Results: Five hundred and twenty-six (526) items were found after applying the search strategy, which identified 14 studies for review and analysis of the full-text. 5 items were selected, of which most had high bias risk and due to its heterogeneity, it was not possible to perform a meta-analysis. The included studies showed improvement in pain, both intra-articular as muscle after infiltration with steroids, including patients with diseases such as The Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis; there were few cases with low incidence effects. Although it was not the objective of this review, is a trend towards improvement in other symptoms and clinical signs as the maximum incisal opening and radiological improvement in nuclear magnetic resonance.
Conclusions: The systematic review shows that intra-articular and muscle corticosteroid infiltrations are an effective and safe treatment to improve pain and function in patients with any type of temporomandibular disorders, despite limitations. It is important to have more clinical trials to confirm the findings.