PRP for Osteoporosis
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Our bones are made up of living, growing tissue that changes throughout our lifespan. Osteoporosis occurs when bone loses its density, causing it to become brittle and weak. The loss of bone strength means those with osteoporosis are at a very high risk of fractures.
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Fortunately, platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, is a rapidly emerging therapy that can be used to enhance bone quality in osteoporosis and accelerate healing in osteoporotic fractures.
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Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that osteoporosis affects more than 200 million people worldwide. Women in particular have a 30-40% risk of having an osteoporotic fracture within their lifetime.
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Osteoporosis-related fractures most often occur in the hip, wrist, and vertebrae in the spine. Preventing fractures is of utmost importance when treating patients with osteoporosis since fractures can lead to loss of mobility, independence, and can even cause other medical problems.
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Fractures also present unique challenges to the surgeon managing the fracture. While the osteoporotic fracture undergoes the same process of healing as a normal fracture, fractures in osteoporotic bone are much slower to heal than in normal bone.
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Bone Healing
Bone healing is a process with three overlapping stages:
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Inflammation
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Bone formation
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Bone resorption (remodeling)
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Bone healing requires a delicate balance between these stages. Bone loss from osteoporosis occurs when bone resorption exceeds bone formation. Osteoporotic fractures are so slow to heal because of this reduction in bone formation – as well as the reduction in bone mineral density inherent in osteoporosis.
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During normal bone healing, platelets deliver growth factors that stimulate the healing activity of the bone's cells. But in osteoporosis, the balance is already tipped away from the bone formation phase, resulting in reduced bone formation and reduced healing.
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Platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, can be used to increase the supply of growth factors available to the bone's cells. In this way, the platelet-rich plasma accelerates bone healing. PRP also boasts a strong safety profile with no known adverse effects.
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But how does it work? PRP assists in bone regeneration by stimulating the body's innate healing cascade. When we experience an injury, our body responds by delivering a rush of platelets. When these platelets are activated, they release several types of growth factors, proteins, and cytokines that play a fundamental role in cell regeneration and tissue healing.
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But PRP takes the natural healing response one step further by separating platelets from other blood components and concentrating them. This specially prepared platelet-rich plasma contains 5 to 10 times the concentration of platelets found in whole blood. The concentrated PRP is then delivered into and around the site of injury via injection, stimulating and significantly strengthening the body's healing response.
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Recent research indicates that PRP enhances bone microarchitecture in osteoporosis.
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Likewise, research has shown that medium-concentration PRP can effectively enhance the healing of osteoporotic fractures when transplanted into the fracture zone. And since PRP is an autologous therapy, using the patient's own blood product, there is no risk of cross reactivity, disease transmission, or immune reaction.
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Platelet-rich plasma concentrations can be uniquely prepared to meet the needs of the patient and the problem being treated.
