Role Of Intra-Articular Injection Of Platelet-Rich Plasma (Prp) In Symptomatic Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis

Abstract

Background: Osteoarthritis/Osteoarthrosis (also called as degenerative arthritis, hypertrophic arthritis, arthritis deformans) is used to define an idiopathic, slowly progressive disease of the diarthrodial (synovial) joints. The applications of biologic treatments such as PRP in musculoskeletal disorders are growing significantly.  The present study was done to clinically assess the role of intra-articular injection of platelet rich plasma in active patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis.

Material and methods: This hospital based prospective observational study was conducted  in  the  Department  of  Orthopaedics,  Muzaffarnagar  Medical  College. The WOMAC (Western Ontario and McMaster Universities) index is used to assess patients with symptomatic osteoarthritis and VAS (visual analog scale) was used to grade the pain perceived by patient and score calculated in scale of 0 to 10.

Results: The mean WOMAC and VAS scores decreased significantly from baseline to 2 weeks to 6 weeks to 12 weeks to 24 weeks.

Conclusion: The primary imperatives of PRP therapy remain the control of symptoms; because pain is the most pressing problem in OA, we evaluated only clinical parameters by using the WOMAC and VAS scoring systems. Radiographic follow-up investigation methods such as magnetic resonance imaging may be considered for evaluating cartilage regeneration (if any) in subsequent research efforts.