Effectiveness of PRP and HA combination therapy administered via intra-articular injections for patients with knee osteoarthritis

Clinical therapy of hyaluronic acid combined with platelet-rich plasma for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis.

Article specifications

This clinical study was published in 2018 in Journal of Exp Ther Med. (IF 2015: 1.56) by Chinese specialists. A total of 360 patients with knee osteoarthritis were randomized into four different treatment groups as follows: Double-blind treatment with PRP (2-14 ml); double-blind treatment with HA (0.1-0.3 mg); combination therapy of PRP and HA; and placebo groups.

 

Result

The current study demonstrated that PRP and HA treatment significantly improved arthralgia, and PRP treatment was determined to be significantly more effective than HA treatment using the WOMAC pain score. PRP and HA combination treatment significantly improved arthralgia, reduced humoral and cellular immune responses and promoted angiogenesis, which improved the patients' histological parameters compared with PRP or HA treatment alone. These results suggested that PRP and HA combination treatment may be a potential treatment option for patients with knee osteoarthritis in the future.