The Effect of Platelet Rich Plasma on Pain at Skin Graft Donor Sites

March 20, 2024 updated by: University of Arizona
The purpose of this study is to compare post-operative skin graft donor site pain between those treated with standard wound care vs PRP. Secondarily the study is designed to compare time to complete donor site healing. The null hypothesis is that here is no difference in post-operative donor site pain between those treated with standard wound care and PRP. The secondary null hypothesis is that there is no difference in time to donor site healing.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

A well-known complaint after a split thickness skin graft surgery is pain at the graft donor site. In our patients, it has been have noticed those whose donor sites have been treated with platelet rich plasma (PRP) have endorsed decreased pain compared to those who have not. During our literature review few studies have looked at this issue. One such study by Miller et. al. looked at 5 patients whose donor site was treated with PRP showed a significant decrease in pain on a Likert visual pain scale. Kakudo et al. performed a side-by-side comparison on a single patient with half the wound treated with PRP and the other as a control. They found better epithelization and reduced pain during dressing changes for the treatment group. Both of these studies show promising results for pain reduction with PRP use, unfortunately there are no high quality randomized control trials that have looked at this. Another issue is many studies on PRP assess reduction of pain as a secondary outcome and instead focus on wound healing and epithelization primarily.

This study hopes to elucidate the effect of PRP application on graft donor site pain. Patients will be recruited to the study and randomized into either treatment or control group based on medical necessity for a skin graft. This study will assess pain at the donor site via Likert pain scale and monitor narcotic pain medication use.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

25

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Arizona
      • Tucson, Arizona, United States, 85721
        • University of Arizona College of Medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Any patient requiring a split thickness skin graft and is above the age of 18.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Medical history of chronic pain at the donor site
  • Inability to follow up
  • Unable to participate in pre or post operative questionnaire inclusive of organic
  • Traumatic, chemical or degenerative causes of altered mental sensorium
  • Age <18.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: PRP
Intervention group will receive PRP instead of the standard of care for skin grafts. PRP Group-will remove surgical dressing post operative day 5. Donor site will be cleaned with soap and water daily and dressed with gauze daily until drainage stops.

The PRP harvest and preparation will be done in the operating room with the help of the hospital blood bank. The skin graft surgery will be completed by Dr. Jason Lowe and/or one of the Orthopaedic Surgery residents. Follow up will also be completed by Dr. Lowe or one of the residents. Data analysis will be done by Drs. Lowe and Manoharan.

Each patient that will be undergoing a skin graft surgery will be randomized into either the PRP (intervention) group or the control group. Follow up and dressing changes will be the same for both groups. Each group will be prescribed a multi-modal pain regimen to reduce narcotic usage.

No Intervention: Control
Control group receiving the standard of care for skin grafts. Control Group-will remove gauze dressing post operative day 2 but leave adeptic. Donor site will be cleaned daily with soap and water. Gauze applied daily as needed for drainage and will be stopped when drainage stops. The adeptic, which forms a biologic dressing, will be removed by the patient over time as it lifts from the wound.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Patient post-operative donor site pain.
Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year
Donor site pain according to the visual analog scale score. Scores are recorded by making a handwritten mark on a 10-cm line that represents a continuum between "no pain" and "worst pain."
Through study completion, an average of 1 year
Duration of donor site wound
Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year
Duration of wound care after surgery
Through study completion, an average of 1 year
Opioid consumption
Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year
Opioid consumption after surgery
Through study completion, an average of 1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Aditya Manoharan, MD, University of Arizona College of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
  • Principal Investigator: Jason Lowe, MD, University of Arizona College of Medicine Department of Orthopaedic Surgery

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

November 1, 2019

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 15, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

March 15, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 29, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 1, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

May 6, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 22, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 20, 2024

Last Verified

March 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PRP Study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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