Thanks for posting Erik

My experiences with patients is variable; as the techniques of preparation/injection are variable.

I’ve had patients with success at the patellar, hamstring, lateral elbow, Achilles – but as many failures as successes.

My recommendation to patients when they ask; is to be an educated consumer; understanding that the evidence is conflicting.

There are a handful of practitioners in our area injecting. So I’d encourage you to contact and query those practitioners on injection procedures, as this article had some conclusion on the best concentration and injection method (which is what is needed for outcomes to be more consistently measured).

It is out of pocket typically – so patients are paying $300-$500 per injection.

Biologics is the future of orthopedics – but the specificity for concentration of components and specific growth factors is not there yet.

But stay educated and up to date, so you can counsel your patients accurately.

Have a great weekend all.

I have not really had any experience with patient’s having these injection or asking about them. I know the literature is somewhere in the middle regarding its effectiveness and it’s the latest buzz as far as injections are concerned.

I can tell you that my brother did a sports medicine rotation with the team doc for the Pirates/Steelers and he said he gave them out like candy (4-6 patients/day getting PRP injections). He verbalized how effective he had found it in his practice. So, that is my only input. It is being used a lot by some (one I know of) of the sports med MDs.

Thanks for posting Erik. I’ve had more patients inquiring about outcomes w/PRP injections lately and have one pt who is undergoing a series of 1-3 injections for lateral elbow pain (she’s currently on injection #2). I do not know the type of injection or application method but plan to inquire. After injection 1 (in adjunct to PT post injection), she has improved w/her pain and function by ~ 80%. She just had the 2nd one hoping to gain the last 20% for return to painfree (and NSAID free) sleeping and golf playing.
It appears PRP, like many other new options out there for tendinopathy pain control, truly has not had enough RCT’s and/or does not have enough set standards to recommend its effectiveness to the masses….or does the pt truly have tendinopathy??

Similar to Erik, I’ve had two patients who have received PRP injections. One was for patellar tendinopathy and the patient had a very poor outcome, probably made her worse. However, she had a significant history of 5 different surgeries for her knee, lots of arthritis, lateral meniscus tear, in pain for many years, and had concurrent stem cell injections as well. So that was a very mixed bag.

The other patient had low grade rib pain due to instability and it really helped him with a serious of injections.

Take it for what its worth!