Platelet-rich plasma injections delay the need for knee arthroplasty: a retrospective study and survival analysis
The biological action of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been shown in numerous studies to slow down the progressive degenerative changes leading to osteoarthritis progression, resulting in a delay of joint replacement. This work aims to evaluate the ability of PRP to postpone and even avoid knee replacement in patients with knee osteoarthritis analysing, on the one hand, the time of delay and on the other hand the percentage of patients without undergoing total knee arthroplasty.
METHODS
A combined analysis has been conducted in this study. Knee osteoarthritis patients who underwent knee replacement between 2014 and 2019 and previously received PRP infiltrations were included in this analysis.
RESULTS
This work included 1084 patients. 74.1% of the patients in the study achieved a delay in the TKA of more than 2 years, with a median delay of 5.3 years. The survival analysis showed that 85.7% of the patients did not undergo total knee surgery during the five year follow-up. The severity degree, age, PRP cycles, and administration route had a statistically significant influence on the efficacy of PRP in delaying surgery.
CONCLUSION
These data suggest that the application of PRP in knee osteoarthritis patients is simple, safe and viable option of treatment that has great potential to reduce total knee surgery. Further benefits can be far more amplified when catching the condition soon. It is highly important that cartilage preservation and total joint health is maintained earlier rather than later. Adding hyaluronic acid in combination with the PRP. will provide more superior clinical outcomes. Specific functional rehabilitation focusing on dynamic strength and stabilisation in between and following on from the treatment will only amplifier results further, enabling long-term pain management, slowed degradation and enhanced functional capability.
Article published by the International Journal of orthopaedics.
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