A recent systematic review examined studies reporting the results of administering biological agents in patients who underwent hip arthroscopy for the treatment of femoroacetabular impingement syndrome.
A search for such studies was made in the PubMed, Ovid, Medline, Cochrane and Web of Science databases for clinical studies assessing biological agents (hyaluronic acid, plasma, cell therapies) in the treatment of femoroacetabular impingement. 11 studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria, containing 440 patients with a mean age ranging from 32.8 to 47 years. All 11 studies showed an improvement in the hip assessment scores up to the final review. Four studies used PRP either intraoperatively or on the day after surgery as an adjunct to repair of the acetabular labrum. Cell therapies were used for articular cartilage lesions (three studies) and labral repair (in one study). When compared with the control group, three PRP cohorts showed similar results, while one study showed worse results in terms of the visual analogue scale for pain and the Harris Hip Score. The four studies with cell therapies showed better results than the control group, with significantly better scores on the hip assessment scales.
The authors concluded that, although PRP, plasma and cell therapies have been reported many times in the literature in the setting of hip arthroscopy, cell therapies appear to give better results when patients are compared with the control group.
Source: “Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy”, December 2023