Knee Osteoarthritis: Platelet Rich Plasma or Hyaluronic Acid

PURPOSE: To compare the effect of hyaluronic acid (HA) or platelet-rich plasma (PRP) on pain, physical function, quality of life and knee joint morphology in patients with knee osteoarthritis severity II-III. BACKGROUND: Knee osteoarthritis affects quality of life significantly because it is the most common joint disease and causes considerable disability. Pathogenesis is multifactorial, nevertheless reduced cartilage production, increased destruction, and synovial inflammation are important factors in the osteoarthritis process. Today, symptomatic drugs are commonly used in the treatment of osteoarthritis, but these treatments have limited effects on cartilage degeneration. Intraarticularly, hyaluronic acid (HA) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatments have been used for osteoarthritis due to pain and functional effects. HA has been shown to reduce the levels of collagen degradation products and maintain normal cartilage metabolism. PRP is thought to have positive effects on clinical and tissue healing due to the numerous growth factors involved. However there is no research to prove definitively that one of the two applications in knee osteoarthritis is superior to the other. METHOD: 120 patients between the ages of 50-70, OA severity II-III will be included in the study. Patients will be stratified according to the severity and age of OA, and two groups will be randomly assigned as HA and PRP. HA and PRP injections will be performed two times and one month apart. Outcome measures are pain, physical function, quality of life, muscle strength, WORMS, and patient satisfaction. Each patient will be examined at baseline, first, third, sixth, ninth and twelfth months.