Taipei City Government

Ms. Lin, 71 years old, has often suffered from knee pain since 10 years ago, which was firstly diagnosed as degenerative arthritis, and would be relieved after the rehabilitation.
As the rehabilitation couldn’t completely relieve the symptoms, she turned to hyaluronic acid injection in combination with the rehabilitation during the attack of the pain 5 years ago. The pain has intensified in the last year and the combined drug therapy is not very effective, so the physician suggested the injection of platelet rich plasma (PRP) and the symptoms obviously improved after two injections.
Wu Jun-jie, director of the Rehabilitation Department in Zhongxing Branch of Taipei City Hospital, points out that degenerative arthritis is common among old people and normally occurs in the knee joints, the traditional treatment involves rehabilitation and nonsteroidal anti-cancer drugs; newly developed PRP has been used as the treatment in recent years. The patients have their own blood drawn, with the part rich in growth factors centrifuged and extracted, and then injected into the knee joints. The principle is to utilize the growth factor to promote the repair of injured cartilage.
Dr. Wu says that the PRP therapy has been quite popular in private hospitals; patients should choose a reliable hospital as their medical quality varies. Taipei City Hospital has strictly chosen and complete medical teams, which provides another choice for citizens.