The use of PRP promotes earlier bone consolidation in patients with delayed union of the humeral shaft.

No abstract

Humeral fractures account for 3-5% of all fractures, with an incidence of about 14.5/100,000 people per year. Nearly 60% of these fractures are found in the bone shaft, 30% in the proximal area, and the rest are in the distal humerus. The majority of the shaft fractures (90%) consolidate with orthopedic management using a humeral brace. Consolidation signs in humeral shaft fractures are observed between 16 and 18 weeks. These fractures cause temporal disability in patients. Surgical options for this fracture are compression plates, intramedullary devices, or external fixation. A delay in the consolidation, known as pseudoarthrosis may appear in 2-10% of these fractures. Another known complication is the radial nerve injury that appears in about 4-22% of cases.

The advances generated in the field of orthopedics, specifically in the treatment of soft-tissue injuries in the musculoskeletal system, have allowed a more favorable evolution and recovery in affected patients. The development and application of new biotechnologies, such as the use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP), have generated great interest in the area of regenerative medicine in the last decade. Being of biological origin, PRP has some advantages, one of the most important being its autologous origin, which prevents any adverse immune reaction in the patient. A disadvantage of PRP is the fact that its preparation requires obtaining a sample of blood from the patient. Furthermore, the processing of the sample usually takes between 30 and 45 min before it is ready for application. There is great inter-and intra-individual variation on platelet and leukocyte concentration obtained. As a result, efforts have been made to standardize the different formulations of PRP, using several classification scales. Multiple applications of this technology have been researched in the different areas of orthopedics; this review describes its use in some of the more frequent pathologies.