

American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. While experts are hopeful and research is promising, more work needs to be done in this particular area. Less certain is whether or not platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections are an effective treatment for other musculoskeletal problems, such as ligament injuries and osteoarthritis. See What Is the Difference Between Tendonitis, Tendinosis, and Tendinopathy? Rather, PRP therapy can be used as part of a larger treatment plan to reduce pain and improve function. These studies demonstrate that-like other treatments for chronic tendon injuries-PRP does not offer a 100 percent reduction in pain for all patients. See Is Heel Pain Caused by Heel Spurs or Plantar Fasciitis? Following therapy, the majority of patients reported some pain relief, and half the patients who received a leukocyte-poor PRP therapy reported to be mostly or all improved. Study patients had experienced symptoms for an average of 3 years before PRP therapy. 3 Chronic tendinopathies included but were not limited to tennis elbow, jumper’s knee (patellar tendinosis), high hamstring tendinosis, Achilles tendinosis, and plantar fasciitis. In another study, 99 tendons diagnosed with chronic tendinopathies were treated with PRP or autologous blood injections.After 24 weeks, nearly 84 percent of patients who received the PRP injections reported a 25 percent or greater reduction in pain, while 68.3 percent of the control group (p = 0.037) reported similar results.


Below are two examples of clinical studies examining PRP therapy.
