PRP Is No Help for Achilles Tendon Injury
Fri, January 22, 2010 at 03:00AM Injections of PRP (platelet-rich plasma), have become a fashionable treatment for muscle and tendon injuries in professional athletes, such as Tiger Woods and the Pittsburgh Steelers's Hines Ward. A small amount of the patient's blood (about 30 mL) is taken and spun in a centrifuge to separate the platelet-rich plasma from the other components. Then the concentrated platelets are injected at the site of the patient's injury. The theory is that growth factors that platelets secrete spur tissue recovery.
The Achilles tendon is thought to be an ideal site for PRP to show its benefits. The blood supply is not good, and chronic tendonitis injuries might well profit from a surplus of platelet-derived growth factors. However, the first well-controlled clinical study, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has produced disappointing results.
54 patients with chronic Achilles tendonitis randomly assigned to have a PRP or a saline injection; both groups of patients also received eccentric exercises. Questionnaires were used at 6, 12, and 24 weeks to record pain and activity. After 24 weeks, the average score for the PRP-treated patients had improved by 21.7 points, whereas the saline group patients had improved 20.5 points – in other words, there was no significant difference in improvement between the two groups. Similar results were obtained with the earlier assessments.
This study shows that a PRP injection did not result in greater improvement than a saline injection in patients with chronic Achilles tendonitis. Further well-controlled studies will be reported in the next months, helping to demonstrate which patients (if any) may be likely to respond to PRP treatment.
Reader Comments (1)
Great information, thanks for sharing!
Dr. Michael Horowitz, Vancouver Orthotics