TUESDAY, Feb. 7 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with severe chronic plantar fasciitis refractory to traditional non-operative management, treatment with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection is significantly more effective than cortisone, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, held from Feb. 7 to 11 in San Francisco.
Raymond R. Monto, M.D., from the Nantucket Cottage Hospital in Massachusetts, compared PRP with cortisone injections for the treatment of 36 patients with plantar fasciitis that was resistant to traditional non-operative management. Patients underwent pretreatment magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound studies. Group 1, with an average age of 59 years, 5.4 months of failed standard non-operative treatment, and an average pretreatment American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS) score of 52, was treated with a single injection of methylprednisolone at the injury site. Group 2, with an average age of 51 years, 5.7 months of failed standard non-operative treatment, and an average pretreatment AOFAS score of 37, was treated with a single injection of un-buffered autologous PRP.
Monto found that, in Group 1, the average post-treatment AOFAS score improved to 81 at three months, decreased to 74 at six months, and then decreased to 58 at 12 months. In Group 2, the average post-treatment AOFAS score improved to 95 at three months, and remained at 94 at six and 12 months (P = 0.001).
"Platelet-rich plasma injection is significantly more effective and durable than cortisone injection for the treatment of severe chronic plantar fasciitis refractory to traditional non-operative management," the author writes.
Abstract No. 051
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