Stop The Pain
Don’t agree to tolerate the pain. Stop by for an expert medical consultation.
Traditional methods of managing knee pain caused by osteoarthritis (OA) include anti-inflammatories, physical therapy, cortisone injections, and surgery. In the past decade, researchers have examined whether injections of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) can be used to manage OA of the knee.
Growth factors are found in platelets in your blood. PRP operates under the theory that injecting growth factors from the blood into an injured area will cause new tissues to form. That is supposed to reduce inflammation in the tissue. When growth factors interact with local cells, they signal them to initiate cell division and migration. This promotes tissue formation.
PRP is a relatively low-pain, low-risk procedure that uses your own blood to stimulate growth in injured tissues. You can use PRP with other pain management methods for knee OA.
Knee Osteoarthritis (OA)
Knee osteoarthritis is the most common degenerative disease of the joints caused by articular cartilage injury, degradation of the joint edge and subchondral bone hyperplasia. Various treatments are used to alleviate the symptoms of patients with knee osteoarthritis, including analgesics(pain-killers) and intra-articular(intra-joint) injections. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is an autologous(from self) and multifunctional platelet concentrate of the blood, which stimulates the cartilage healing process and improves the damage caused by articular disease. Hyaluronic acid (HA) is also an effective treatment for patients with knee osteoarthritis.
What Are The Effects Of PRP?
Researchers noted that, compared with placeboes, PRP injections significantly reduced pain scores at 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. And compared with controls, PRP significantly improved physical function at these follow-ups.
Reports have indicated that inflammatory cytokines serve a critical function in the induction and development of osteoarthritis. PRP is an autologous and multifunctional platelet concentrate of the blood that contains highly concentrated platelets and high levels of cell growth factors. PRP promotes synovial cell proliferation and differentiation, and promotes recovery of cartilage morphology.
What Are The Effects Of HA?
HA is responsible for the viscoelastic and lubricant capabilities of the synovial fluid in joints. It serves a key function in metabolism in the joints and mechanical support, which stimulates chondrocyte metabolism and cartilage matrix components synthesis as well as inflammatory processes. Clinical research has indicated that intra-articular HA injections in patients with knee osteoarthritis are associated with pain relief, quality of life, survival time, clinical effect and a longer period of time prior to the onset of knee arthroplasty(surgery).
Who Is A Good Candidate For This Treatment?
You may be a good candidate for PRP or HA if your symptoms of OA of the knee are not manageable through conventional methods such as anti-inflammatories, cortisone injections, and physical therapy.
Results Of Current Studies
The results demonstrated that PRP and/or HA alleviated knee osteoarthritis and reduced the humoral and cellular immune responses, which subsequently led to beneficial effects on histological parameters. The clinical outcomes revealed a significant improvement in all the variables of *WOMAC following combination treatment with PRP and HA.
Clinical outcomes of the current study demonstrated that PRP and HA are potential novel therapeutic options for treating knee osteoarthritis and an increasing number of clinical reports continue to indicate promising results.
The results indicate that patients with knee osteoarthritis treated with PRP and HA exhibited beneficial effects on body pain, and alleviated arthralgia(joint pain), cartilage destruction and bone damage.
* WOMAC – The Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index is a widely used, proprietary set of standardized questionnaires used by health professionals to evaluate the condition of patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and hip, including pain, stiffness, and physical functioning of the joints.
At Elegance Clinic, we provide knees and other joints PRP and Hyaluronic Acid Injection.
Compiled by Dr Tan WW
