An Innovative Approach to Platelet-Rich Plasma Application in Military Medicine; a Review Article

Abstract

Context: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is an autologous blood production that majorly contains high concentration of platelet and is known for its healing properties. The purpose of this paper was to assess the future application of PRP in military medicine. Evidence Acquisition: In this review, the appropriate online databases including PubMed, Science Direct, and Wily were searched until January 15, 2015, using free text and MeSH. Only English papers were included such as systematic reviews, clinical trials, and randomized clinical trials (RCTs). Forty-nine papers were included in this study. Included studies were categorized based on topics related to regenerative characteristics of PRP, and considering at least one clinical output. Data from selected studies were reviewed based on year of publication, animal or human studies, and results. A total of 59 papers including RCTs, case control, and review studies were found among which 49 publications showed favorable outcomes with the use of PRP. The reviewed studies were separated into six groups as follows: Tendon injury, bone injury, wound healing, dermatology, rejuvenation, and hair growth. Results: According to reviewed studies, use of PRP produced “inconsistent” but "promising" results in early trials. This study attempts to evaluate perspectives of PRP application in regenerative medicine as an efficient treatment and an innovative technology for military medicine through implementation of a review of literature. Conclusions: This review represents an advantage of PRP application in healing quality such as improved regeneration for bone graft and an enhanced wound-healing rate; however, PRP therapy system has still remained controversial due to the lack of reliable studies.