As compared to the Intra-articular (IA)-hyaluronic acid and IA-corticosteroids, IA Platelet-rich plasma provides the better outcomes for symptomatic early stages of knee osteoarthritis, results of a recent study conducted by the investigators of Jining First People's Hospital and Jinan University. Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a degenerative joint condition with severe pain and disability for which no curative therapy is present.

Intra-articular (IA) therapies are the approved therapies by European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in which hyaluronic acid (HA),  corticosteroids (CS) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) use raised frequently in recent years to manage KOA. This prospective randomized controlled study was administered to assess whether IA-PRP was better to IA-CS or IA-HA administration routes.

A total of 120 participants categorized to received 2 ml/week IA-HA,  4 ml IA-PRP, three times every three weeks or 1 ml IA-CS. Visual analogue scale (VAS) and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) score were used to measure the pain and outcomes. As compared to pretreatment, WOMAC and VAS showed significant improvement after the treatments. No considerable difference was seen between the groups in the WOMAC scores at 3 months of the, but at 6, 9 and 12 months following the treatment, IA-PRP showed considerably lower scores as compared to other two approaches. This reflects a notable efficacy of IA-PRP over IA-HA and IA-CS in treating osteoarthritis.