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22/06/2021

The "route" of Platelet-Rich Plasma in osteoarthritis treatment

• Twittear

Part of the experience of the UCA and its research work dealing with Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) have been both reflected in a letter published by doctors Mikel Sánchez and Diego Delgado in the Therapeutic Advances in Musculoskeletal Disease journal, commenting on an article by I. Andía et al. in which PRP is examined as a treatment for osteoarthritis.

This letter from the Therapeutic Advances in Musculoskeletal Disease addresses the future the PRP has in the field of osteoarthritis, highlighting the importance of the patient, the pathology, the correct characterization of the PRP and the protocol for its application, as keys that make the success of this treatment possible.

Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) is a medicine for human use to cover specific needs and pathologies. In this case we will consider the use of PRP in osteoarthritis treatments.

The use of PRP in osteoarthritis treatments still has a long way to go and several factors need to be considered in order to achieve the most effective therapy possible. For this, it is important to have sufficient information about the patient and his or her pathology in order to make the treatment as effective as possible.

These will be the most important factors to be considered:

• First, it is important to know both the patient's phenotype and pathology. Advances in diagnostic techniques and the use of biomarkers are necessary to correctly classify the type of patient and the osteoarthritis they suffer from, in order to optimize the applied treatment.

• Second, it is critical to characterise the type of PRP that is being used and what is the most appropriate administration protocol for that specific patient. Furthermore, it is essential to collect all the information about the product and its application in scientific studies in order to draw solid conclusions about this treatment and thus progress in the improvement of PRP treatments.

Only by taking all these factors into account we will be able to obtain a treatment that modifies this disease in the future. This objective is already being achieved, as suggested by the data showing a delay in the fitting of prostheses in patients with knee osteoarthritis who are treated with PRP.

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