Home » Pain

Platelet Rich Plasma Injections

19 January 2010 No Comment
I’ve been wanting to write something on Platelet Rich Plasma Injections for Tendon Injuries for a while now. I first heard about it when a lady I treat came in after having had it done for a Tennis Elbow. She said it certainly increased her pain, quite dramatically. In her words, it was the worst thing she had ever done. She certainly would not recommend it to anyone, but I didn’t really have any other information on it and so I started to look and ask around.
These injections are relatively new, certainly moreso than something like cortisone. It is predominantly used for tendon injuries, which in themselves are fairly complicated. The type of tissue in a tendon is not really elastic like a muscle is, and it has a poor blood supply, so it heals a lot slower. The idea that the injection could increase the amount of blood in the area and thus improve the healing rate is certainly attractive.
I spoke to a few people, some were patients who had received the injection themself, some were other practitioners who reported their experiences. Overall, I’d say it was fairly lukewarm. The lady I referred to earlier was by far the worst reaction, a few people had okay results, nothing overwhelming mind you, but okay, but the majority of reports I heard were basically that it was nothing special.
The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published the results of a study comparing the use of Platelet Injections and Saline Injections (Placebo) in the Achilles Tendon. The results were not positive. Measurements of pain and function were taken at 6, 12, and 24 weeks, and “there was no significant distinction between the 2 groups during any measurement period”. Furthermore, patient satisfaction and the number of patients returning to their sport was not better for the Platelet group over the Placebo group.
Like I said, I wanted to at least put something out there for you to consider. I know some of you will have this offered to you by your doctor at some point. I hope this information helps make you as informed as possible and assists you in making your decision.
I would absolutely love to hear any more reports – if you have had this done by all means post your review of the procedure by commenting on this article.
The abstract can be found here

I’ve been wanting to write something on Platelet Rich Plasma Injections for Tendon Injuries for a while now. I first heard about it when a lady I treat came in after having had it done for a Tennis Elbow. She said it certainly increased her pain, quite dramatically. In her words, it was the worst thing she had ever done. She certainly would not recommend it to anyone, but I didn’t really have any other information on it and so I started to look and ask around.

These injections are relatively new, certainly moreso than something like cortisone. It is predominantly used for tendon injuries, which in themselves are fairly complicated. The type of tissue in a tendon is not really elastic like a muscle is, and it has a poor blood supply, so it heals a lot slower. The idea that the injection could increase the amount of blood in the area and thus improve the healing rate is certainly attractive.

I spoke to a few people, some were patients who had received the injection themself, some were other practitioners who reported their experiences. Overall, I’d say it was fairly lukewarm. The lady I referred to earlier was by far the worst reaction, a few people had okay results, nothing overwhelming mind you, but okay, but the majority of reports I heard were basically that it was nothing special.

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published the results of a study comparing the use of Platelet Injections and Saline Injections (Placebo) in the Achilles Tendon. The results were not positive. Measurements of pain and function were taken at 6, 12, and 24 weeks, and “there was no significant distinction between the 2 groups during any measurement period“. Furthermore, patient satisfaction and the number of patients returning to their sport was not better for the Platelet group over the Placebo group.

Like I said, I wanted to at least put something out there for you to consider. I know some of you will have this offered to you by your doctor at some point. I hope this information helps make you as informed as possible and assists you in making your decision.

I would absolutely love to hear any more reports – if you have had this done by all means post your review of the procedure by commenting on this article.

The abstract can be found here, but be warned, the very act of opening the link to a scientific abstract makes you a bit of a nerd.

Comments are closed.