Does prp improve short term functional outcome in patients with degenerative osteoarthritis - a prospective study

Introduction: Osteoarthritis is one of the leading causes of disability having high prevalence in elderly population. There is a large debate regarding usage of biologicals in treatment of OA knee. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efcacy and safety of intra articular PRP injection in treatment of OA knee. Materials and methods: 50 patients were enrolled in this prospective non-randomized study.10 patients were lost to follow up.40 patients and 55 knees were studied .All of them received 2 doses of 5ml intraarticular PRP injection 3 weeks apart. The WOMAC scores and VAS scores at baseline, 1month, 3months and 6 months follow up are compared. Results: Out of 40 patients 25 had unilateral 15 had bilateral symptomatic osteoarthritis knee. A total of 55 knees were studied. 9 patients were males and 31 were females with mean age of 55.65yrs and mean BMI of 29.2. According to KL grading 40 knees were grade 3 and 15 were grade 4.There is statistically signicant (p<0.001) decrease in VAS scores and improvement in WOMAC functional scores after 2 doses of PRP injections. No signicant adverse effects were observed. Conclusion: Intraarticular PRP injection is safe, well tolerated and effective in treatment of primary osteoarthritis. There is decrease in pain and improvement in functional outcome after 2 doses of PRP. More well designed RCT'S with large sample and long term follow up are required to establish long term effectiveness of PRP injections.