How Effective are Injections of Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) for the Treatment of Sports Injuries: a Critical Review of the Literature

Jl Ziltener L Allet

doi:10.4172/2161-0673.s2-003

Abstract

Acute soft-tissue lesions and chronic overuse injuries in the sports medicine field are very frequent and in most cases, difficult to treat. Tissue repair in musculoskeletal lesions is often too slow and sometimes incomplete for a given athlete. The fastest, most complete recovery is of primary importance, and keeping the delay until return-to- field as brief as possible, a priority. Many bioactive proteins and growth factors amongst others influence healing processes. Administration of Platelet Rich Plasma enables the production, from the patient’s own blood, of natural, high concentrations of autologous growth factors. Basic research and animal studies are promising, but evidence- based studies examining the treatment of human musculoskeletal lesions by Platelet Rich Plasma are still lacking. Nevertheless, such treatment is increasingly used in sports medicine clinical practice and much is expected of growth factor injections. The aim of this non exhaustive review is to analyze the existing literature published in the fields of sports medicine. The results of this analysis do not permit us to recommend the systematic and generalized use of Platelet Rich Plasma injections in the management of sport injuries. Nevertheless, a few promising results have to be mentioned, but high-quality studies are needed to provide scientific evidence about these injections’ effectiveness.

Highlights

Acute and chronic musculoskeletal injuries are common during physical activities, are frequently problematic for an athlete, and always represent a therapeutic challenge for the clinician
Each granula has more than thirty bioactive proteins, including platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), transforming growth factor (TGF-Beta), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fibroblastic growth factor (FGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1)
The role of Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) in tissue healing could open a new field in sports medicine, but a significant amount of research is still needed to understand the effect of PRP on the regenerative and healing processes of a given soft tissue

Summary

Introduction

Acute and chronic musculoskeletal injuries are common during physical activities, are frequently problematic for an athlete, and always represent a therapeutic challenge for the clinician. The large variety of products speaks for their different possible compositions with diverse biological effects Other variables such as modalities of PRP activation, presence or not of white blood cells, local anesthesia or not, use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, post-injection rehabilitation protocols, and many others, are confounding factors in studies, explaining the diversity of the experimental, but most of all clinical results [1,2]. Each granula has more than thirty bioactive proteins, including platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), transforming growth factor (TGF-Beta), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fibroblastic growth factor (FGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) The different effects these factors have on human tissues have been extensively discussed in numerous papers, synthesized in two recent reviews [3,4].

Methodology

Findings

Concluding Remarks