ENHANCING MICROFRACTURE TREATMENT FOR CHONDRAL LESIONS WITH PLATELET-RICH PLASMA: AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY
ANDREI VISOIANU 1,2*, GABRIELA SOARE 1,2, COSMIN CONSTANTIN BACIU 1,2, RAZVAN ENE 1,2, GHEORGHE ION POPESCU 1,2
1 Clinical Emergency Hospital Bucharest, Romania
2 ”Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest, Romania
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Chondral lesions are more often found in patients with knee pain, either from normal wear and tear or due to traumatic events. The treatment for this condition is still debatable, depending on the type of the lesion, age, or other comorbidities. Microfractures alone or enhanced with other biological agents, like platelet-rich plasma (PRP) or bone marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC), are a convenient solution, often used, with different results offered by other studies. We evaluated 24 patients presenting chondral lesions Outerbridge grades 3 and 4 who were treated with microfractures alone or enhanced by PRP using scores from the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) and VAS (visual analogue score). Evaluation was performed at admission, at 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year. Results show improvement in time for both groups. Patients treated with microfractures and PRP have significantly higher IKDC scores at all three moments. This means the overall quality improved after the treatment with microfractures and PRP compared with the group that received only the microfractures. Patients treated only with microfractures had significantly higher VAS scores compared with the other group, meaning higher residual pain. Our results suggest that enhancing microfractures with PRP injections is better than microfractures alone.
