European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Introduction: Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has gainedincreased importance invarious medical fields, including orthopaedics. Recently,it has been used for cartilage regeneration, chronic enthasopathies liketenniselbow,plantarfasciitis,and inthefieldof sports medicine. PRP has a biological healing capacity and helps inhealing both tennis elbow and plantar fasciitis with low recurrence rate. The basic science of PRP depends on growth factors in alpha-granules such as PDGF, TGF-BETA-1, EGF and VEGF. The present study involves use of intralesional injection of autologous PRP for treatment of chronic tennis elbow and plantar fasciitis, so as to study its efficacy and compare the outcome between both groups of patients.  Materials and Methods: This prospective study was carried out in the Department of Orthopaedics, Index Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Indore, after approval by Institutional Ethics Committee. 60 consented patients; 38 of plantar fasciitis and 22 of tennis elbow diagnosed clinically; >18 years with minimum 3 months duration of symptoms; undergone conservative treatment for at least 3 months, with pain score >7 at time of PRP injection and not received local steroid injection in the last 2 months were included in the study. All patients were assessed based on the numerical pain scoring system.Follow-up was done at 1,2,4,6 months. Data was collected, compiled and analysed using SPSS 22.0 (trial version). Result:Mean pain score for plantar fasciitis at 0,1,2,4,6 months was 8.71, 3.58, 2.16, 1.97, and 2.26 respectively. Mean pain score for tennis elbow at 0, 1,2,4,6 months was 8.50, 4.59, 3.73, 3.64 and 3.77 respectively. 26% patients in Plantar Fasciitis were relieved of pain in the first month whereas 23% in Tennis Elbow got relieved of pain in the first month. The difference between 1, 2, 4 and 6 months pain reduction were tested for significance by paired T – test and it was found that there was no significantdifferenceinpainreductionbetween2monthsand4months,2 months and 6 months ,4 months and 6 months scores. But there was significant difference in pain score in 1and 2 months (p-value=0.0171). Conclusion: Autologous PRP injection is a safe and useful modality of treatment in the treatment of chronic plantar fasciitis and tennis elbow. The response of patients with plantar fasciitis was significantly better than tennis elbow to platelet rich plasma injection. Maximum benefit after PRP injection was observed at 4 months and sustained for at least 6 months.