OE Journal

ORIGINAL ANALYSIS

Platelet-Rich Plasma – Does it Work for Knee Osteoarthritis?

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) continues to attract interest for knee osteoarthritis, and a growing pool of randomized trials offers mixed but promising signals. Across multiple comparisons, PRP frequently showed short-term pain reduction, outperforming placebo, non-operative care, and steroid injections at early follow-up, and demonstrating an advantage over hyaluronic acid at one year. Short-term results versus surgery and hyaluronic acid were largely comparable. Despite these patterns, confidence in the evidence remains limited due to small sample sizes, methodological concerns, and high heterogeneity in several analyses. The overall picture suggests potential pain benefits over the first year, while underscoring the need for higher-quality trials before firm conclusions can be drawn.