Platelet-rich therapy in the treatment of patients with hip fractures: a single centre, parallel group, participant-blinded, randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVE To quantify and draw inferences on the clinical effectiveness of platelet-rich therapy in the management of patients with a typical osteoporotic fracture of the hip. DESIGN Single centre, parallel group, participant-blinded, randomised controlled trial. SETTING UK Major Trauma Centre. PARTICIPANTS 200 of 315 eligible patients aged 65 years and over with any type of intracapsular fracture of the proximal femur. Patients were excluded if their fracture precluded internal fixation. INTERVENTIONS Participants underwent internal fixation of the fracture with cannulated screws and were randomly allocated to receive an injection of platelet-rich plasma into the fracture site or not. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Failure of fixation within 12 months, defined as any revision surgery. RESULTS Primary outcome data were available for 82 of 101 and 78 of 99 participants allocated to test and control groups, respectively; the remainder died prior to final follow-up. There was an absolute risk reduction of 5.6% (95% CI -10.6% to 21.8%) favouring treatment with platelet-rich therapy (χ(2) test, p=0.569). An adjusted effect estimate from a logistic regression model was similar (OR=0.71, 95% CI 0.36 to 1.40, z test; p=0.325). There were no significant differences in any of the secondary outcome measures excepting length of stay favouring treatment with platelet-rich therapy (median difference 8 days, Mann-Whitney U test; p=0.03). The number and distribution of adverse events were similar. Estimated cumulative incidence functions for the competing events of death and revision demonstrated no evidence of a significant treatment effect (HR 0.895, 95% CI 0.533 to 1.504; p=0.680 in favour of platelet-rich therapy). CONCLUSIONS No evidence of a difference in the risk of revision surgery within 1 year in participants treated with platelet-rich therapy compared with those not treated. However, we cannot definitively exclude a clinically meaningful difference. TRIAL REGISTRATION Current Controlled Trials, ISRCTN49197425, http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN49197425.