Trial reportKnee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA2018
Two cycles of plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF-Endoret) intra-articular injections improve stiffness and activities of daily living but not pain compared to one cycle on patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis.
Trial report in Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Intra-articular injections of hyaluronic acid versus plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF) for knee osteoarthritis: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials : A meta-analysis.Orthopadie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2025Pooled it
- The effects of platelet-rich plasma injection in knee and hip osteoarthritis: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Clinical rheumatology · 2021Pooled it
- Restoring Study PRGF: a randomized clinical trial on plasma rich in growth factors for knee osteoarthritis.Trials · 2023Trial
- Plasma Rich in Growth Factors (PRGF) Versus Saline Intraosseous Infiltrations Combined with Intra-Articular PRGF in Severe Knee Osteoarthritis: A Prospective Double-Blind Multicentric Randomized Controlled Trial with 1-Year Follow-Up.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- The Impact of Lower Extremity Mechanical Axis Alignment on the Success of Platelet-Rich Plasma Injections in Knee Osteoarthritis Patients.Orthopaedic surgery · 2025Article
- Association between knee stiffness and MRI-detected lesions: data from the osteoarthritis initiative (OAI).BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2025Article
- Article
- Randomized Controlled Trials for Platelet-Rich Plasma Use in Knee Osteoarthritis Rarely Report Key Sociodemographic Patient Variables: A Scoping Review.Arthroscopy, sports medicine, and rehabilitation · 2024Article
- Retrospective Analysis of Responders and Impaired Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis Treated with Two Consecutive Injections of Very Pure Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP).Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Office-Based Intraosseous Infiltrations of PRGF as an Effective Treatment for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Retrospective Observational Clinical Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Evaluation of Platelet-Rich Plasma by means of PRGFFrontiers in veterinary science · 2023Article
- Real-world evidence to assess the effectiveness of platelet-rich plasma in the treatment of knee degenerative pathology: a prospective observational study.Therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease · 2022Article
- Platelet-rich plasma injections delay the need for knee arthroplasty: a retrospective study and survival analysis.International orthopaedics · 2021Article
- Platelet Concentrates in Musculoskeletal Medicine.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo assess the clinical efficacy and safety of a treatment based on one cycle versus two cycles of intra-articular injections of plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF-Endoret) on patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA).
methodsNinety patients with knee OA were included and evaluated. A total of 48 patients received one cycle (OC group) (3 injections on a weekly basis), while 42 patients received two cycles of PRGF-Endoret (TC group) spaced 6 months between them. Patients were evaluated with LEQUESNE and WOMAC scores before treatment and after 48 weeks. Safety assessment was also performed.
resultsA significant reduction of all assessed outcome measures was shown for both groups at 48 weeks compared with baseline values (P < 0.001). Patients of TCs group showed a significantly higher reduction (P < 0.05) in WOMAC stiffness subscales. Regarding LEQUESNE INDEX, a significantly higher reduction was observed in the TC group in all subscales except in pain score. In the maximum walking distance subscale (MCD), the improvement rate was 31.8% higher for the TCs group compared with the OC group (P < 0.01). In addition, the TC group showed a significant improvement in LEQUESNE activities of daily living (ADV) and global subscales of 14.7 and 11.8% (P < 0.05) higher, respectively, than the OC group.
conclusionsTreatment with two cycles of PRGF did not show a significantly higher pain reduction compared with one cycle treatment. However, two cycles of PRGF showed a significant improvement in WOMAC stiffness, LEQUESNE MCD, LEQUESNE ADV and LEQUESNE global subscales. Therefore, patients treated with two cycles present an improvement in quality of life. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II.
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