Platelet-rich plasma: intra-articular knee injections produced favorable results on degenerative cartilage lesions

Abstract

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a natural concentrate of autologous blood growth factors experimented in different fields of medicine in order to test its potential to enhance tissue regeneration. The aim of our study is to explore this novel approach to treat degenerative lesions of articular cartilage of the knee. One hundred consecutive patients, affected by chronic degenerative condition of the knee, were treated with PRP intra-articular injections (115 knees treated). The procedure consisted of 150-ml of venous blood collected and twice centrifugated: 3 PRP units of 5 ml each were used for the injections. Patients were clinically prospectively evaluated before and at the end of the treatment, and at 6 and 12 months follow-up. IKDC, objective and subjective, and EQ VAS were used for clinical evaluation. Statistical analysis was performed to evaluate the significance of sex, age, grade of OA and BMI. A statistically significant improvement of all clinical scores was obtained from the basal evaluation to the end of the therapy and at 6-12 months follow-up (P < 0.0005). The results remained stable from the end of the therapy to 6 months follow up, whereas they became significantly worse at 12 months follow up (P = 0.02), even if still significantly higher respect to the basal level (P < 0.0005). The preliminary results indicate that the treatment with PRP injections is safe and has the potential to reduce pain and improve knee function and quality of live in younger patients with low degree of articular degeneration.

The Efficacy of Platelets Rich Plasma Injection in the Superior Joint Space of the Tempromandibular Joint Guided by Ultra Sound in Patients with Non-reducing Disk Displacement

“…It can relieve the clinical symptoms in short term and possibly prevent TMJ disease progression in long term. Due to the fact that PRP is a natural source of autologous GFs, it also improves cartilage repairs in degenerative knee pathologic disorder [19,27,28].…”

“…Platelets rich plasma (PRP) has recently been used successfully for the treatment of knee degenerative pathologic disorders, because it is safe and has the potential to reduce pain and improve function [18,19].…”

A Cell-free Scaffold-based Cartilage Repair Provides Improved Function Hyaline-like Repair at One year

“…Injection of PRP in knees with chronic degenerative symptoms reportedly reduced pain and improved knee function as assessed by VAS pain and IKDC scores in younger patients at 1 year followup [16]. Two randomized controlled studies have investigated whether cartilage regeneration after chondrocyte implantation is superior to microfracture treatment for cartilage defects of the knee [31,32].…”

Arcabouço de PRP-gel associado a células tronco mesenquimais: uso em lesões condrais em modelo experimental equino

“…O tempo de permanência desse arcabouço de PRP, formado pelo gel de fibrina, é variável segundo a literatura, podendo durar de 7 a 15 dias (Yamada 2011, Xie et al 2014. Ainda, o arcabouço de PRP possui vantagens como: a fácil obtenção, simples aplicação e pouco custo de produção (Yamada et al 2012), favorecendo o retorno biomecânico da articulação comprometida e reduzindo a dor (Kon et al 2010, Sun et al 2010, Yamada 2011, Milano et al 2010, Xie et al 2012, Lee et al 2013.…”