Platelet rich plasma reduces pain in knee osteoarthritis says new research

People with knee osteoarthritis who received either platelet rich plasma or hyaluronic acid injections experienced a significant improvement in pain relief at early follow-up, according to research in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

The use of platelet rich plasma to treat osteoarthritis has had mixed success in trials when compared with hyaluronic acid (which is an accepted treatment).

So experts set out to compare the two options in people with mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis (49 people had platelet-rich plasma injections and 50 people had hyaluronic acid injections).

“We found no difference between hyaluronic acid and platelet rich plasma at any time point in the primary outcome measure [a standard measure of osteoarthritis],” the researchers explain. “Significant improvements were seen in other patient-reported outcome measures, with results favoring platelet-rich plasma over hyaluronic acid.

“There was a trend toward a decrease in 2 proinflammatory cytokines, which suggest that the anti-inflammatory properties of platelet rich plasma may contribute to an improvement of symptoms.”

Click here to read the original research.

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