Effectiviteit van behandeling met plaatjesrijk plasma

Osteoarthritis and tendon disorders of the lower extremities are common problems for which it can be challenging to find effective treatments. Injection of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a treatment that locally affects inflammation and repair of tissues. In the last decade, many clinical studies have been conducted into treatment with PRP injections, with varying results. In this article, we put the results of these studies in the proper perspective. The quality of randomised studies and systematic literature reviews on the effectiveness of PRP injections clearly varies. It should be pointed out that studies that show positive effects often have methodological flaws or have compared treatments with PRP injections with glucocorticoid injections. These studies are giving a distorted impression of the effectiveness of PRP injections due to the less positive medium- and long-term effects of glucocorticoid injections in patients with tendon disorders. Based on the literature, we are discouraging treatments using PRP injections to treat patients with osteoarthritis and tendinopathies of the lower extremities.

Conflict of interest and financial support: potential conflicts of interest have been reported for this article. ICMJE forms provided by the authors are available online along with the full text of this article.