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Foundation Publishes Paper in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research

We are pleased to announce that the Foundation has published a paper titled “Effect of Local Anesthetics on Platelet Physiology and Function” in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research. Congratulations to our research team: Ryan C Dregalla, Ph.D., Yvette Uribe, and Marko Bodor, M.D., NMRF’s Director of Research, for their outstanding effort on this project. The outcome of the study demonstrated that certain anesthetics are safe to use during platelet-rich plasma (PRP) procedures while one type can cause damage to platelets and their therapeutic function in repairing injured tissue.

Local anesthetics have been avoided by experts during PRP procedures due to possible damage to platelets (based on the knowledge that local anesthetics can cause cell damage), and therefore decrease the effectiveness of PRP. There are numerous anesthetics, each with unique molecular structure and function which may influence platelets differently. As PRP injections often lead to pain and discomfort for several hours or days, the NMRF team sought to research the impact of local anesthetics on platelets and determine if there were any concentrations that could be safely used without causing damage to the platelets.

In 2019, the Foundation research team began their study on the effects of three different types of anesthesia on platelet health. The study determined that lidocaine and ropivacaine were relatively safe; however, bupivacaine was harmful to platelets, showing rapid death, an increase in intracellular stress signals, and it reduced the ability of the platelets to bind activating substrates (essential for therapeutic benefits of the platelets).

The clinical significance is that lidocaine 1% and ropivacaine 0.5% can be used at up to 1:1 ratio with platelet preparations in order to reduce the pain and discomfort of PRP procedures while maintaining platelet health. This discovery is very important to the medical community and a win for PRP patients, who will be the beneficiaries of these findings.

To view the article, go to: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jor.25019
The full article is published in the April 2021 issue of Journal of Orthopaedic Research, Volume 39