Platelet Rich Plasma

Does PRP Work to Treat SI Joint Pain?

The addition of Orthobiologics to Interventional Pain Management changes the playing field, but only if you recognize that these substances allow for a different type of treatment paradigm. Today we’ll highlight a study that shows that issue and go over the evidence behind PRP and SI joint pain. Let’s dig in. What Is the SI…read more

Should We Be Adding HA to PRP? A Literature Review

As CMO of Regenexx, it’s my job to stay up to date on the research behind the latest trends in Orthobiologics research. One of those new things is adding common knee gel shots (HA) to PRP to improve knee arthritis results more than PRP alone. So let’s explore the high-level research supporting this idea and…read more

Can a PRP Injection Help Your Knee Cartilage Health?

Can a PRP injection help your cartilage? While we’ve had some indications based on animal models that platelet-rich plasma probably helps improve the quality of cartilage, we have had no definitive human evidence. Now a new study using sophisticated MRI techniques adds to that evidence. Imaging and Measuring Cartilage How do we measure the quality…read more

The Weak PRP Files: This Study Showed Good Clinical Results, But No Biomarker Changes

These past few weeks, we’ve seen what happens when academic physicians try to perform PRP studies. Their biggest mistake is often using very weakly concentrated blood that doesn’t meet the definition of PRP. This morning we’ll review a similar study that looked at knee arthritis biomarkers. Prior Weak or Fake PRP Studies As you now…read more

A Study, a Professor, PRP and COIs Galore

As I have written previously, you don’t have to look too deep for industry-academic connections in the recent spate of papers all using fake PRP and claiming non-efficacy. This morning we’ll look into the professor at the University of Sydney who published the recent knee OA paper in JAMA. Let’s dig in. Why Are Conflicts…read more

Why Bad PRP Studies Matter: The Katz PRP JAMA Editorial

We’ve seen a rash of bad PRP studies with negative results lately. Given that we have dozens of positive studies showing that PRP works, the average physician might say, “Why is this a big deal?” After all, we physicians are used to scenarios where most of the research is positive with a handful of negative…read more

More Fake PRP Studies

I’ve covered a few different “PRP” studies that didn’t actually use real PRP. However, none were as ridiculous as a study that was recently published in JAMA on knee arthritis. Let’s dig in. When is PRP not PRP? PRP stands for platelet-rich plasma. The idea is supposed to be that PRP concentrates platelets many times…read more

The PRP Wars and the Planet Academia

Sometimes I read media stories written about PRP and I say to myself, “What planet are these guys from?” I have now answered that question, they are from the planet Academia. It’s an interesting place at odds with itself, so let’s dig into what we know. The Dichotomous Media Stories that Inspired this Blog This…read more