Plasma jabs no use for Achilles pain
Wednesday July 14th 2021
A new study has found no benefit for treatment with platelet rich plasma injections for Achilles tendinopathy.
This degenerative condition can cause significant pain originating in the Achilles tendon. Injecting platelet rich plasma (PRP) has been used for this and other orthopaedic conditions, to reduce pain and improve function.
The approach was tested by Professor Rebecca Kearney of the University of Warwick, UK, and colleagues.
They recruited 240 patients and gave them either PRP treatment or a sham injection. After three and six months, pain, function and activity were measured by self-assessment.
Analysis found no statistically significant difference between the group. Details were published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Professor Kearney said: “The only reason for treating tendinopathy is if the patient is experiencing pain, as the condition doesn’t cause pain in all cases. What’s important to patients is they want a reduction in pain, to be able to do the activities they could before. We set what was a clinically important difference and that wasn’t met in the trial.
“More participants in the PRP group experienced increased pain soon after the injection, bleeding, bruising, and swelling in the area injected. These are normal things you’d associate with receiving an injection and they did get better but they show that injections into the Achilles tendon are not consequence free.
“The recommendation from this trial is that PRP should not be used to treat Achilles tendinopathy. It’s not effective, it costs money and we found some evidence that it can cause harm in the short term. There’s no evidence to continue using it for Achilles tendinopathy.”
Kearney, R. S. et al. Effect of platelet rich plasma injection vs sham injection on tendon dysfunction in patients with chronic midportion Achilles tendinopathy: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA 13 July 2021; doi: 10.1001/jama.2021.6986
Tags: Pharmaceuticals | Rheumatology | UK News
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