A STUDY ON THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF PLATELET RICH PLASMA ALONE AND IN CONJUNCTION WITH OZONE THERAPY FOR PARTIALLY RESECTED HAMSTRING TENDON REPAIR IN RABBITS

Abstract

In recent years, an interest in rehabilitation therapies has sufficiently increased, especially in the field of sports medicine. Hamstring tendon partial tears are very common in this regard and are mainly associated with trauma, chronic tendinopathies and degenerative conditions etc., which are very difficult to cure. Among their rehabilitation therapies along with standard surgical procedures include platelet rich plasma, medical ozone etc. PRP with higher platelet concentrations have abundant cytokines and growth factors that stimulate tissue healing. Medical ozone has special antioxidant, immunoregulatory and analgesic properties which may be highly useful to treat musculoskeletal injuries. In our studies, we selected a total of 18 rabbits that were allocated to 03 groups (n=06). Partial tendon resection was done, and surgical repair was managed with Krackow’s suture pattern in all rabbits. Group A (sutures) served as control, while group B and C were administered with PRP and O₃-PRP, respectively @ 0.5 mL, four times a week. The study was carried out for 5 weeks and therapeutic regimens were monitored on day 0, 1, 7,14, 21, 28 and 35 in terms of physiological vitals, hematology parameter, radiology, ultrasonography, histology and scanning electron microscopy. We noticed excellent tendon healing in group C (O₃-PRP) with abundant cytokines, growth factors, O₃ based oxidative stress and pathogen control. Group B showed good cure due to numerous thrombocyte mediators but it lagged behind group C, whereas group A revealed poor healing among all. Though the use of these regimens in vivo needs further trials, but in the complex scenario of hamstring injuries management we may suggest that ‘medical ozone-PRP’ had beneficial effects for the tendon partial rupture than PRP alone or the sutures.