To explorer the clinical efficacy of intra-articular injection of autologous platelet rich plasma (PRP) in the treatment of degenerative meniscus tears.

From May 2021 to August 2023, eighty-one patients were selected with meniscus injury who visited the outpatient department of orthopedics in Yancheng First People’s Hospital. All the patients were confirmed meniscus tear by MRI without trauma history. According to the random number method, patients were divided into PRP group (27 cases), hyaluronic acid (HA) group (27 cases), and control group (27 cases). All the patients refused arthroscopic surgery treatment. Each patient received a intra-articular injection treatment once a week, with PRP 5 ml, HA 2.5 ml, and 5 ml of saline for three weeks consecutively. All the patients were treated with the same rehabilitation plan, and the visual analog pain score (VAS), Lysholm score, and knee injury and osteoarthritis outcome score (KOOS) were recorded before treatment, at one, three, and six months after treatment. The results were analyzed by repeated measurement variance analysis. Any of adverse events were recorded during the follow-up. A knee joint MRI was carried out at six months after treatment and the Stoller grade was evaluated. The situations of meniscus repair were analyzed by chi-square test.

All the patients finished the follow-up successfully in this study. There was no significant difference in age, gender, affected side, body mass index or follow-up duration among the three groups before treatment. There was no statistically significant difference in VAS, Lysholm, or KOOS scores among the three groups before treatment (all P>0.05). After treatment, VAS scores in all three groups were lower than before treatment, while KOOS and Lysholm scores were higher than before treatment. VAS scores in the PRP group (4.2±1.2, 2.6±1.0, 2.0±1.1) were lower than those in the HA group (5.2±1.0, 4.5±1.3, 3.2±1.1) and the control group (5.7±1.4, 4.9±1.2, 4.4±1.2) at one, three, and six months after treatment (F=10.966, 29.388, 30.721, all P<0.01), while Lysholm scores in the PRP group (75.6±4.5, 79.6±4.2, 85.1±5.3) were higher than those in the HA group ( 69.3±4.6, 73.8±4.1, 79.1±4.5) and the control group (64.8±3.6, 68.9±5.3, 70.4±4.3) at one, three, and six months after treatment, with statistically significant differences (F=45.504, 36.868, 67.314, all P<0.001). KOOS scores were higher than those in the control group at three and six months after treatment, with statistically significant differences (all P<0.05).None of the three group experience severe adverse events such as knee joint infection. As for the meniscus repair rate, PRP group (66.7%) was higher than that of the HA group (40.7%) and the control group (19.2%) (χ²=15.738, P=0.015).

PRP intra-articular injection could alleviate pain and improve knee joint function in patients with degenerative meniscus tear, with satisfactory clinical efficacy.