Back Pain Treatment Birmingham
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) versus Corticosteroid Injection for the Treatment of Disc Related Low Back Pain: A Double-Blind Randomised Controlled Trial.
Low back pain is the leading cause of worldwide reduced productivity and disability, with enormous impacts, with spinal degeneration and osteoarthritis being one of the major causes, as a result of disc degeneration. Vertebral disc degeneration is accompanied with structural breakdown and impaired function. Proinflammatory cytokines found in degenerative spinal discs induces progressive degradation of major extracellular matrix components. This also enhancing the expression of nociceptive pain molecules within degenerated discs affecting sensory endings in the outer layers - being responsible for discogenic pain. Furthermore, progressive thinning and degradation of discs reduces important spinal function and results in osteocytic sparing of bones.
Bioactive protein growth factors have been extensively evaluated in for the clinical utility in disc repair (Biologic repair and regeneration of the intervertebral disk. J. Am. Acad. Orthop. Surg. 2011.
Prevention of disc degeneration with growth factors. Eur. Spine J. 2006). Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is an autologous blood concentrate containing a wealth of these bioactive molecules. PRP promotes tissue repair and cellular growth by anabolic effects of growth factors released from activated platelets. This also provides anti-inflammatory properties that modulate tissue repair and are related to analgesic effects in reducing pain. More frequently, PRP is used with increasing frequency for the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions, including muscle and tendon injuries and osteoarthritis. A recent meta-analysis of randomised controlled clinical trials reported that intra-articular injection of PRP is effective for pain relief and functional improvement in knee osteoarthritis (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33718505/).
PRP has been shown to activate metabolism of spinal disc and induce a repair process, suggesting that spinal disc injection of PRP is a promising therapy to disc related low back pain. Clinical studies of disc PRP injection treatment for patients with low back pain and a meta-analysis of 12 clinical studies have shown significant improvements in low back pain.
The purpose of the recent study below was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of disc injection of PRP in comparison with corticosteroid injection in patients with disc related low back pain. A clinically significant improvement in the pain (more than a 30% reduction was identified in both the PRP and steroid patients at 8 weeks post treatment. Initially, no differences in comparison between the two groups of patients. Based on this outcome, it is suggestive that PRP has a similar short-term pain relieving effect to that of corticosteroid injection treatment.
The long-term effects of corticosteroid injection treatment in patients with disc related pain still remains controversial.
Among the patients who received the optional injection of PRP the patients who received two doses of PRP showed excellent clinical benefit, including more than a 70% improvement in low back pain and disability, and a success rate of 87.5% at the final follow-up.
Conclusion
The spinal disc injection of PRP showed clinically significant improvements in low back pain intensity in patients with disc related low back pain, similar to those injected with steroid at 8 weeks post back treatment. however, reported longer benefits were seen within PRP treatment. Overall, PRP treatment is safe and can maintain improvements in pain and disability during 60 weeks of follow-up. This again supports the many further studies which have identified prp to be a successful treatment long-term over corticosteroid. For reducing inflammation and improving functional capacity.
Here at Dynamic Regenerative Medicine we are offering a whole range of treatments for back back including:
sciatica treatment
disc herniation
facet inflammation
platelet rich plasma (prp) injection
prolotherapy
epidural injection
facet joint injection
sacroiliac joint (SIJ) joint injection
osteopathy (manual therapy)
physiotherapy and rehabilitation
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Don’t let low back 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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