Abstract

Purpose: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is routinely used in the symptomatic treatment of knee osteoarthritis (OA) despite limited evidence. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of injective protocol of leukocyte-poor-PRP for the symptomatic treatment of knee OA.

Methods: A retrospective study of 213 patients (a total of 326 knees treated) with symptomatic knee OA were analysed; each patient underwent a cycle of three infiltrations with intra-articular PRP and was re-evaluated at 3, 6 and 12 months with clinical examination or phone contact. The Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and International Knee Documentation Committee Subjective Knee Form (IKDC) were used to assess efficacy.

Results: Mean age was 68.1  ±  9.7 years and 59.6% were female. Mean VAS score before treatment was 6.5 ± 1.4 (range from 2 to 10), 1.6 ± 1.6 at 3 months, 1.4 ± 1.5 at 6 months and 1.7 ± 1.7 at 12 months. A significant reduction was observed between the VAS score pre-treatment and the VAS score at 3 months (p < 0.001), 6 months (p < 0.001) or 12 months (p < 0.001). The IKDC score was 41.7 ± 9.2 before treatment and was 67.3 ± 14.1 at 12 months (p < 0.001). A better symptomatic relief was observed in patients with early knee OA (stage 1 and 2 of Kellgren-Lawrence classification).

Conclusions: This study suggests that leukocyte-poor-PRP injections are effective in reducing pain symptoms and improving functional outcomes in patients with knee OA at short-term follow-up.

Keywords: Knee; Osteoarthritis; Platelet-rich-plasma; Pain; Conservative Treatment

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Citation

Citation: Andrea Farneti., et al. “The Effects of Leukocyte-Poor Platelet Rich Plasma for the Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis: A Single Centre Experience".Acta Scientific Orthopaedics 3.12 (2020): 52-57.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Andrea Farneti., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.