Advantages of Dextrose, Platelet Rich Plasma and Stem Cells over the Traditional Conventional Methods in Treatment of Sports Injuries and Joint Osteoarthritis

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) reflects a slowly evolving joint disease with loss and erosion of articular cartilage, osteophytes formation and weakness or laxity of the soft tissues in the synovial joints, particularly the large weight-bearing joints. The prevalence of the OA increases with age, and its radiological changes can be observed in over 50% of the retired people. Symptoms can vary from minimal to severe pain, stiffness, locking, decreased function and sometimes joint effusion. Inevitably, a wide range of potential therapies have been advocated, and not necessarily with strong supportive evidence. The Standard-of-care for treatment of pain is multidisciplinary; however, a recent systematic review reported no clear benefit of any one therapy. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has called for the development of new therapies for pain management. In Interventional Regenerative Orthopedic Medicine (IROM), Dextrose is used as a tissue proliferant for treatment of OA. It has different ways of action aiming to do tissue regeneration. Platelet Rich plasma is also used in IROM and is very promising because of delivering "growth-factors" which stimulate the local tissue progenitor cells (mesenchymal stem cells) enhancing the regeneration of the tissues. Adult Mesenchymal stem cells is the hot topic nowadays in the non-surgical joint reconstruction. The results revealed that patients treated for sports injuries and joint OA using IROM (dextrose, PRP and stem cells) showed a greater improvement regarding their sports performance as well as joint pain and function compared to those treated with traditional methods (different modalities of physiotherapy, steroids injections…..etc). Moreover, athletes with sports injuries treated with steroid injections showed a deterioration in their sports performance, muscle strain, joint pain and function.