[walkers]

i wondered if anyone on the foot and ankle/knee thread has tried PRP. Its being offered for foot and ankle arthritis at Duke and I suppose other hospitals. I have one very bad ankle and now arthritis in the other foot. I tried cortisone injection which reduced the pain some but not enough. My right ankle has been useless for years after a fal and fracture of my Talus. I'm gessing all these yrs. of depending on my left foot for mounting , walking, standing has just worn it out. Great now I can't walk w/o pain but I did ride yesterday (with drugs) my good gaited mare as I could never post again. My foot killed afterwards just from the stirrup!
I was hoping someone had knowledge of PRP. I know they do it to horses.

[Bluey]

No, but I know they called me always in donation drives, when I was donating for many years, because my blood was very rich in some "blood factors", platelets one of them and they used it for that more than for straight transfusions.

I wish you good luck finding some way to be able to walk without pain.

[LuvMyRide]

I have. I was in a car accident that caused major tendon damage and tendonitis in my left elbow (from holding the steering wheel). After a year of therapy, and cortisone injections I had surgery. After that I has physical therapy again, and received another round of cortisone. As that point my Dr recommended the PRP injection. After the injections I had another 2 weeks of soreness then then finally had that turning point and I've been at about 90% ever since (which is what was expected).

In other words, it is definitely worth trying it. It is not painful like the cortisone, and it worked.

[jen-s]

Walkers--Which ortho at Duke did your PRP??? I'm hoping to talk them into doing my elbow but so far I'm not getting anywhere. I go back on Monday and I'm going to poke harder. I'm PMing you also.

[Kareen]

I didn't have it but it's being used on patients (equine ) here quite a bit and my experience has been rather unexciting thus far. I personally have done very well using leeches for a nasty epicondylitis that didn't leave with rest, physio or therapeutic x-rays (a lot of those). Have been fine for 3 yrs now

[whicker]

I have had quite a lot of PRP for SI instability and hyper-extended ligaments. It has made it possible to ride and do most things over the last 10 years. I'm happy to talk with you, too. There are more things that can be done now, too.
Dr. Friedlis is one of the greats in the field, knows the research work of many of the others. His website has lots of educational info on regenerative procedures.
http://www.treatingpain.com/medstaff...iedlis_MD.html

[Equine Adhesive]

I didn't have PRP done, but I did have prolotherapy. If you want details, PM me. I wish I had known more about it before I had it done, because my experience was not a good one.

[jen-s]

Just an update, the Duke doc who does PRP is Blake Boggess in Sports Med. I have to wait from my hand/wrist tendon surgery to heal before they can deal with my elbow, but late summer/early fall, we'll tackle my elbow problems and I'll report back.

[flyracing]

I've had it in bursea, a joint and in the plantar fascia. The bursa injections have been the most amazing for me (even after failed steroid injections. It was helpful in the joint and I don't know yet the long term of the PF.

One thing to know is there are different prp "types" within prp. Mainly there is "bloody prp" (most common) where blood cells remain in the plasma (Many of them lysed/broken open) which requires and inflammatory response to clean them up (especially counter productive in a joint). More recently "super concentrated plasma" or "stem cell plasma" has become available which removes all red and white cells from the plasma (which also concentrates the other portion further). Alternatively, some practices are not using a "kit", but are drawing blood, spinning it down and drawing the serum off the top and calling it prp. The kits require 30-60cc to produce 3-4 cc of prp while spinning requires about 10cc of blood to make 3-4cc of prp. Also note that ACP (autologous conditioned plasma) and prp are theoretically identical, but just use different trade mark names.

As another side note, the horses we see seem to have a profound anti inflammatory effect from SCP PRP used in joints. Therorectically, the bloody prp would be best when trying to initiate the inflammatory cascade, while the other best suited as an antiinflammatory.