Kristine Houck, MA, ELS; Casey Tingle , 2025-04-18 14:42:00
April 18, 2025
1 min read
Key takeaways:
- Use of corticosteroids improved clinical outcomes of knee osteoarthritis at 3-month follow-up vs. platelet-rich plasma.
- Future research should include a larger number of patients with knee osteoarthritis.
SAN DIEGO — Results presented here showed intra-articular injections of platelet-rich plasma may be inferior to corticosteroid injections for treatment of mild to moderate knee osteoarthritis.
“The take-home message is, let us be honest to our patients. Right now, the literature is still varied in terms of efficacy on PRP. Based on my study, I would argue that it does not show a clinically significant difference or improvement,” Ronald E. Delanois, MD, of Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics, told Healio about results presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting.
Delanois and colleagues randomly assigned 52 patients with symptomatic radiographically confirmed knee OA to receive treatment with either an intra-articular injection of PRP (n = 26) or a corticosteroid injection (n = 26). Researchers evaluated WOMAC, KOOS and VAS scores at baseline, 6 weeks and 3 months after injection.
Although the corticosteroid and PRP groups had similar WOMAC, KOOS and VAS scores at baseline, results showed patients who received corticosteroid injections had lower WOMAC scores and higher KOOS scores 3 months after injection compared with patients who received PRP injections. However, the PRP and corticosteroid injection groups had similar VAS scores at 3-month follow-up, according to results.
“[PRP] showed a difference, but never a clinically significant difference, which is important,” Delanois said. “Some people showed an improvement, but, again, improvement vs. clinically significant improvement is different, and they never reached it.”
In the future, Delanois said the study needs to be reproduced with a larger number of patients with knee OA. He also said the study is being conducted looking at patients with hip OA.
“We are hoping to be able to give that data in the near future and see whether it has applications in the hip,” Delanois said. “Maybe it is different in the hip. I do not know yet.”
For more information:
Ronald E. Delanois, MD, can be reached at rdelanoi@lifebridgehealth.org.
Sources/Disclosures
Collapse
Swartz GN, et al. Poster e251. Presented at: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting; March 10-14, 2025; San Diego.
Disclosures:
Delanois reports no relevant financial disclosures.