Treatment of Unresolved Shoulder Pain with Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy

Dr Marc Darrow has published research on the treatment of shoulder pain with Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy. The research appears in the peer-reviewed Journal of Orthopaedics Spine and Sports Medicine. The study can be found here in its entirety: Treatment of shoulder pain with Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy.

Background : Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a minimally invasive surgical alternative that uses platelets from a patient’s own blood to heal musculoskeletal conditions. The objective of this study was to report the outcomes of patients with unresolved shoulder pain in response to PRP injections.

Methods : 52 patients and 61 shoulders underwent a series of one through seven PRP injections for unresolved shoulder pain. Patients were separated into three groups based on number of PRP treatments received. Group 1 received 1 treatment, Group 2 received 2 treatments and Group 3 received 3 or more treatments. Patients in Group 2 received a series of treatments 20.22 days apart and patients in Group 3 received treatments 20.00 days apart. Outcomes of resting pain, active pain, upper functionality scale and overall improvement percentage were compared to baseline and between groups. Group 1 reported outcomes a mean 4.79 months after treatment, Group 2 reported outcomes a mean 6.97 months after treatment, and Group 3 reported outcomes a mean 7.38 months after treatment.

Results : Patients who received one treatment experienced significant improvements in active pain and functionality when compared to baseline and also experienced 38.35% total overall improvement. Patients in Groups 2 and 3 experienced significant improvements in resting pain, active pain, and functionality score in addition to experiencing 48.33% and 55.53% total overall improvement respectively.

Conclusions : These results are encouraging and provide evidence that PRP may be an effective treatment modality for un-resolved shoulder pain and warrants further investigation.

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