Clinical Effects of Additional Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Application to Exercise Therapy in Patients with Subacromial Impingement Syndrome: A Double-Blind Randomised Controlled Trial. October 2024.
Subacromial shoulder impingement syndrome is the most common shoulder disorder. This common condition is associted with inflammation and degeneration of local shoulder rotator cuff muscles. The most common complaints of shoulder impingement are generally pain in daily activities, particularly with overhead activity, and at night when lying on the affected. This is a condition we see many times every day at our shoulder pain clinic in Birmingham.
Rest, anti-inflammatory medications, structured exercise therapy, local injection therapy and physical therapeutic modalities like therapeutic ultrasound, electrotherapy, and manual therapy are generally considered the main conservative treatment options. Surgical decompression options may be considered in the presence of resistant symptoms to conservative treatment.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a popular biological treatment obtained from the patients blood. After drawing a small sample of blood between 20–50 ML, this is then centrifuged to produce an autologous high platelet concentration rich in growth factors. Healing mechanisms for damaged and inflamed tissues are supported by platelets, cytokines, bioactive mediators, and growth factors. High amounts of good quality literature reports that PRP positively contributes to the proliferation of human muscle, bone, and tendon cells and the soft tissue healing process. Although there remains mixed research for rotator cuff tears, the benefits of PRP in rotator cuff tendinopathy and subacromial pain are clearly apparent. This is also emphasised in the current literature in many reported cases.
This recent research trial investigates the additional benefits of PRP treatment on pain, function, and quality of life by comparing the combination of exercise therapy and PRP with isolated exercise therapy and combined treatment protocols to nonoperative treatments. The researchers were looking to investigate whether the patient group receiving PRP applications in addition to exercise therapy would have better improvements then just exercise therapy alone. This, based on a 6th months follow up following treatment.
A total of 67 patients were used for this study. There were no statistical differences between groups regarding participant characteristics and clinical evaluations before treatment. A statistically significant improvement was observed in pain, function, and quality of life evaluations of patients in both the exercise therapy and the PRP groups compared with before the treatment and 6 months following the treatment. At the 6-month post treatment evaluation, the PRP group was shown to be statistically significantly superior to exercise therapy in terms of pain at rest and night. This superiority was also in favour of the PRP group in functional shoulder strength.
Overall, this double blinded controlled trial identified that both isolated exercise therapy and additional PRP injection treatment to exercise therapy are effective therapeutic methods in the treatment of shoulder impingement syndrome - regarding pain, function, a quality of life. The study identified that combining exercise therapy with PRP was superior in reducing pain and improving functional shoulder strength.
Have you been suffering with ongoing niggling shoulder pain? We have now been performing this effective biological therapy of PRP injection treatment at our Birmingham and Warwickshire clinics now for over 10 years and pleased to see fantastic success rates with stimulating repair and healing with chronic injuries and pain.
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Don’t let joint pain, joint damage, sports injuries or arthritis get in the way of allowing you to do what you want. Schedule a consultation at Dynamic Regenerative Medicine today, and let us treat your condition, provide pain relief and get you back to your full and active lifestyle. We have clinics operating out of Solihull (Henley-In-Arden) and Birmingham (Edgbaston).
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Keywords
#PRPTreatment #Birmingham #Warwickshire #UK #RotatorCuffInjury #ShoulderPain #PainRelief #Arthritis #Tendinitis
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