Platelet Rich Plasma Injection in the Treatment of a Recalcitrant Plantar Fasciitis: A Case Study

Abstract

Plantar fasciitis (PF) is a common musculoskeletal problem that causes so much disability in the foot. Recently, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection has been recommended for the treatment of patients with chronic plantar fasciitis (PF), particularly where physiotherapy or other conservative treatments have failed or pain is limiting exercise, in order to reduce heel pain and improve functional restoration. In this case study, a patient who PF for 16 years and had failed all conservative treatments including cortisone injection was treated with platelet-rich plasma injections twice and made significant improvements with 100% reduction in pain intensity measured using numeric pain scale (NPS) from 10 to 0 and improvement in her lower limb functional by 56% from 68 to 24/80, which was assessed using lower extremity functional scale (LEFS) score. There were no safety issues recorded. Conclusion: Injection of autologous PRP for chronic plantar fasciitis was found to be beneficial in terms of pain relief (reduced NPS score) and functional outcome (improvement in LEFS score). However, a large scale and a properly randomised controlled study is needed to prove further efficacy of PRP injection.