Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a degenerative disease of articular cartilage.

Clinically, it is more common in the elderly, mainly manifested as knee pain, limited mobility and knee joint deformity, which is a kind of osteoarthritis that has the greatest impact on the quality of life of the elderly.

According to statistics, the prevalence rate of KOA in China is as high as 8.1, and the prevalence rate of women is much higher than that of men. Aunt Li, 72, is one of thousands of elderly people suffering from knee osteoarthritis pain. Due to excessive weight, excessive running, mountain climbing and other activities, the left knee joint pain symptoms appeared more than 10 years ago. Knee pain occurs when you walk or sit for a long time. Especially in recent years, Aunt Li has been extremely difficult to go up and down the stairs, especially when she goes downstairs, her knee joint is weak and the risk of falling is very high.

Don't worry, there is now a magic injection therapy called PRP, which has been hailed as the "knee savior".

platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a platelet concentrate isolated from autologous blood by centrifugation, which is rich in a variety of growth factors. It can play an important role in wound repair and healing, and has been widely used in orthopedics, burns, pain, oral and maxillofacial surgery and other fields. Studies have shown that PRP can promote the repair of bone and articular cartilage, and has a good effect on osteoarthritis.

PRP contains many types of bioactive proteins, cytokines and anti-inflammatory mediators. After being activated, it can enhance the metabolic activity of osteoblasts, reduce cell apoptosis, increase the expression of procollagen gene and collagen-derived growth factor, and increase the tensile strength of new tissues. It plays a vital role in the healing process. Studies have shown that PRP has a strong positive role in promoting chondrocyte proliferation, inflammation and cell differentiation. In addition, PRP also contains neutrophils, monocytes and lymphocytes, which can release a large number of growth factors after activation to promote tissue and cell repair.

PRP is derived from autologous plasma, which is easy to obtain, convenient and quick to prepare, low incidence of blood infection, allergic reaction and immune reaction, and has the characteristics of promoting cartilage repair and anti-inflammatory reaction. A number of research evidence also shows that intra-articular injection is safe and effective. Its efficacy is supported by clinical evidence-based medicine. Compared with surgery, PRP treatment has less secondary damage to the knee joint and is more conducive to the repair of the knee joint.

Through a comprehensive evaluation, the doctor director of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine advised Aunt Li to receive PRP injection therapy.

Through the comprehensive treatment of PRP injection combined with exercise training, Aunt Li's knee pain symptoms were significantly improved, not only the pain symptoms were relieved, but also the motor function of Aunt Li's lower limbs was significantly improved. During the outpatient follow-up one year later, Aunt Li was pleasantly surprised to find that her knee degeneration had improved significantly compared to the knee X-ray before treatment.

Joint pain is no small matter, knee joint savior-PRP treatment brings new "knee" hope.