Platelet-rich plasma injection for knee OA had similar outcomes vs bone marrow aspirate
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Platelet-rich plasma and concentrated bone marrow aspirate injections had similar outcomes for treatment of knee osteoarthritis at 24-month follow-up, according to results.
Adam W. Anz, MD, and colleagues randomly assigned 90 patients with knee OA to receive either platelet-rich plasma (n=41) or concentrated bone marrow aspirate (n=49) injection.
“One [patient] was withdrawn at the 12-month time point from the platelet-rich plasma group and four from the bone marrow aspirate group,” Anz said in his presentation at the Arthroscopy Association of North America and American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Specialty Day. “At the final time point, we had lost 11 [patients] within the platelet-rich plasma group and nine within the concentrated bone marrow aspirate group.”
Anz noted significant improvements in IKDC and WOMAC scores at 1-month follow-up. These scores continued to improve until 3-month follow-up when the scores plateaued and were sustained until the 24-month final follow-up, according to Anz.
“At the final follow-up, IKDC scores had improved 37% higher from baseline in the concentrated bone marrow aspirate group and 34% from baseline in the platelet-rich plasma group,” Anz said.
He added WOMAC scores improved 41% and 38% from baseline to final follow-up in the concentrated bone marrow aspirate and platelet-rich plasma groups, respectively.
“These improvements exceeded previously reported minimally detectable changes for both the IKDC and WOMAC, and there were no differences between the platelet-rich plasma and the concentrated bone marrow aspirate groups,” Anz said.
Perspective
Back to Top
The quest to find a cost-effective, efficacious treatment for knee OA remains an area of interest for clinicians and patients alike. In this study, Adam W. Anz, MD, and colleagues looked into the effects of different biologic injections for knee OA, including platelet-rich plasma and concentrate bone marrow aspirate, also commonly referred to as BMAC. Using a randomized study design, a total 41 patients received PRP, while 49 received bone marrow, with approximately 78% follow-up at their final time point. In both groups, patient-reported outcomes including IKDC and WOMAC scores in both groups improved at 1 month and 3 months, at which time they seemed to plateau. Notably, the scores did not drop at the final follow-up period (24 months), suggesting that both treatments were able to maintain their positive impact on patient-reported outcomes. Importantly, there were no differences between the PRP and bone marrow groups.
I find this study provides clinically meaningful data, as it shows that both biologic options are advantageous for knee OA and also shows that PRP, which is typically less expensive than concentrated bone marrow aspirate, is similarly efficacious. This type of data will help clinicians in their shared decision-making process with patients with knee OA.
Moving forward, it will be helpful to better understand the demographics of the included patients and their degree/severity of arthritis, as well as the type of PRP and bone marrow utilized, in order to extrapolate the findings of this study to a specific patient.
Collapse
Anz AW, et al. Paper 13. Presented at: Arthroscopy Association of North America and American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Specialty Day; March 17 and 18, 2021 (virtual meeting).
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts