Platelet Gel to Acceleration of Tissue Regeneration and Healing

Platelet gel is made up by two moieties: a suspension of concentrated platelets and a gel-like material allowing the manipulation and the clinical application.

Platelets are cellular blood components participating in blood coagulation. Embedded into the clot, plaletets are releasing various kinds of molecules stimulating several biologic functions related to tissue repair and regeneration. Some of these molecules, generally named growth factors, stimulate the attraction into the lesion site of several kinds of cells: immune cells, tissue-regenerating stem or mature cells, cells regenerating the blood vessel-regenerating cells.

The gel-like material is a fibrin clot identical to that formed after a lesion or a wound has occurred.

The use of topical platelets medication started in the eighties following the principle that the same action exerted from platelets within a wound could be exerted carrying platelets in a lesion site without optimal blood inflow.

The group leaded by Knigton have published several reports of successful treatments with the autologous platelet-derived wound healing factors (platelet releasate, PDWHF). After that, reports have been published on the use of PRP-gel in oral surgery.

Since 1999 the platelet gel was used to enhance the repair and the regeneration of almost all tissue (skin, epithelia, muscle, tendon, bone, cartliage, etc) in a significant array of clinical conditions, both in humans and in veterinary medicine.

Platelet gel has been successfully used in many medical fields:

- Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (dental implants);
- Chronic and Acute Wounds (diabetic foot ulcers, pressure ulcers);

- Orthopedics (fractures, non-union/bony defects, hip and knee replacement);

- General Surgery, Major Vascular Surgery, Cardio-thoracic Surgery, Urology (sternal repairs, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), aneurysms, splenectomy, gastrectomy, pancreatic surgery, liver resection, hernia repair, fistula, mastectomy, hepatic lobectomy, prostatectomy, nephrectomy);

- Ophthalmology and Eye Surgery (corneal ulcers, keratocongiuntivitis, cornea sicca, macular hole repair);

- Ear, Nose and Throat (rhinoplasty, cleft lip repair, skin graft fixation);

- Sports Medicine (tendinosis, tendinopathy, tendon & muscle injury);

- Plastic, Cosmetic and Reconstructive surgery (laser resurfacing, face, neck, brow lifts, blephroplasty, mammoplasty, abdominoplasty, non-healing wounds, fat transfers);

- Neurosurgery (CSF leak, dural repair, cranioplasty), and Veterinary Medicine and Surgery (bone, tendon, ligament injuries;

- Skin and mammary gland lesions in horses, canines, and other domestic animals).

Platelet gel preparation is almost always autologous; it is produced through use of the blood of the patient who will receive it. The patient’s blood is centrifuged for platelets being separated from red cells and plasma.

Concentrated platelets in a small aliquot of plasma resulting from this process phase are clotted stimulating the physiologic coagulation process.

A platelet-embedding gel-like material is formed within few minutes. This platelet gel is used as a medication. Obviously, application protocols vary according to tissue and lesion to be cared for.

In some cases a single medication is performed (e.g., dental implant, bone fracture, surgery). In some other cases medication is to be performed once or twice a week (e.g., diabetic ulcer, chronic or traumatic wound).

According to the treated condition, efficacy of platelet gel is 80-99%. Besides enhanced regeneration, platelet gel has said antibacterial effect to several bacterial strains. Platelet gel is autologous and safe.

Its effectiveness is associated to reduced recovery time, shortened rehabilitation course, reduced lesion-related complications, reduced treatment-associated costs.