Treatment of Ulcers with Platelet Rich Plasma Impregnated Dressings

Ulcers, especially in the lower limb are a frequent problem encountered in our hospitals and are often difficult to heal because they lack the necessary growth factors to maintain the healing process, and are frequently complicated by superinfection. Conventional therapies such as dressings and surgical debridement cannot provide satisfactory healing since these treatments are not able to provide enough necessary growth factors to modulate the healing process. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP), as a concentrate of platelets, releases a high concentration of multiple growth factors that can modulate healing processes. Furthermore, PRP also contains a high level of leukocytes, which can inhibit infection. PRP has been widely used in many clinical applications. The objective is to study the effect of PRP dressing in comparison to regular saline dressing on ulcers and its influence in wound healing. A prospective randomized trial of platelet rich plasma dressing and regular saline dressing was done. Two comparative studies were done, one under the setting of the presence of diabetes as comorbidity and the other without it. Both the studies compare the efficacy of platelet rich plasma versus regular saline dressing in terms of duration of stay in hospital. A total of 114 case were taken for study. Duration of stay in hospital was less in case of wounds treated with PRP dressings than that of Saline dressings. The results were similar for both diabetic and nondiabetic ulcers with PRP dressings having a shorter duration of stay in hospital irrespective of diabetes as comorbidity.