by Dr. Walter I. Sussman

In a recent study by Sánchez et al. they studied whether platelet rich-plasma or PRP could postpone or even be avoid TKA in patients with knee osteoarthritis.

In this study, the authors performed a retrospective study to determine how long patients were able to delay or avoid a total knee replacement. Of 1084 patients, 667 were included in the study. Out of these patients, 74.1% of the patients were able to delay a TKA for more than 1.5 years and the median delay was 5.3 years. During the 5-year study follow-up 85.7% of patients did not undergo a TKA. The authors found that the severity degree, age, PRP cycles, and administration route had a impact on how effective the PRP was in delaying surgery.

Overall, the findings of this study suggested that PRP intra-articular injections were helpful in delaying a total knee replacement in patients with knee arthritis.

Reference:

Sánchez M., Jorquera C., Sánchez P., Beitia M., García-Cano B., Guadilla J., Delgado D. Platelet-rich plasma injections delay the need for knee arthroplasty: A retrospective study and survival analysis. Int. Orthop. 2021;45:401–410.