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Intraarticular platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection has emerged as a promising treatment for knee osteoarthritis. Studies to date, including multiple randomized controlled trials, have shown that PRP is a safe and effective treatment option for knee osteoarthritis. Intraarticular PRP is similar in efficacy to hyaluronic acid, and seems to be more effective than hyaluronic acid in younger, active patients with low-grade osteoarthritis. Treatment benefits seem to wane after 6-9 mos. There are numerous PRP treatment variables that may be of importance, and the optimal PRP protocol remains unclear. Future investigations should control and analyze the effects of these variables in PRP treatment. High-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to optimize PRP treatment methods and better define the role of PRP in osteoarthritis management in the knee and, potentially, in other joints.

In this population of golfers, total knee arthroplasty reliably relieved pain that had been previously experienced while golfing, and increased or maintained this group's enjoyment of playing golf. However, 86% of these patients reported using a cart while golfing. Further patient education is needed regarding the potential health benefits of walking during golf after total knee arthroplasty.

These data suggest that decreases in plasma free-VEGF levels are greater after treatment with aflibercept or bevacizumab compared with ranibizumab at 4 weeks. At 52 and 104 weeks, a greater decrease was observed in bevacizumab versus ranibizumab. Results from 2 subgroups of participants who did not receive injections within at least 1 month and 2 months before collection suggest similar changes in VEGF levels after stopping injections. It is unknown whether VEGF levels return to normal as the drug is cleared from the system or whether the presence of the drug affects the assay's ability to accurately measure free VEGF. No significant associations between VEGF concentration and systemic factors were noted.

Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (p-HEMA) is a hydrophilic methacrylate polymer which was first prepared by Wichterle and Lim OJ.This polymer, and many other synthetic hydrogels, has been extensively examined for potential biomedical applications (2J.Although many studies have focused on the physicochemical nature of these hydrogels, many questions remain unanswered. Among these are the nature, organization, and role of water in determining such properties as interfacial and transport phenom ena.Problems which deal with the presence of water and the structure of water at the molecular level are often complex. For hydrogels, i t has been proposed (3) that water can be treated in terms of a three state model.These include: bound, interfacial, and "bulk-like" water.Bound water is strongly associated with the polymer, probably as water hydrating the hydrophilic groups of the polymer.Interfacial water is probably associated with hydrophobic interactions between the polymer segments.Finally, "bulk-like" water is that with properties which are similar to that of bulk water in aqueous solution.Several studies have been designed in an effort to verify this model. The total gel water content was estimated semiquantitative^ using NMR (4,_5).Simi lar approaches were made to investigate the state of"water in p-HEMA gels using the techniques of dilatometry, specific conducti vity and differential scanning calorimetry (6).Recently, we have examined solute permeation through hydrogel membranes in an effort to develop models which describe in detail the transport phenomena with particular emphasis on the role of water in this process.These studies have utilized p-HEMA and its copolymers, and both hydrophobic and hydrophilic solutes (7*8,9).It was determined that p-HEMA and its copoly mers are permeable to both hydrophobic and hydrophilic solutes. The factors which influence the permeabilities include the nature and per cent of crosslinkers and the water content of the hydrogel .In this manuscript, the permeabilities of water soluble non-

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