if you're frustrated by lack of progress from tennis elbow or golfer's elbow then you're in the right place i'm going to go over why prp treatment is one of the best and fastest ways to get people back to physical activity as quickly and as safely as possible multiple level 1 randomized control trials show that prp injections for the treatment of tennis elbow and golfer's elbow show incredible results let's dive right in dr jeff peng here we're going to talk about using prp injections or platelet-rich plasma injections to treat tennis elbow and golfer's elbow these two
conditions are among the most common causes of elbow pain they contribute significantly to lost days at work decreased productivity as well as the morbidity that it causes now we used to think that these conditions were inflammatory and that's why tennis elbow is called lateral epicondylitis and golfer's elbow is called medial epicondylitis and the itis part in their name literally means inflammation but now we have a better understanding of these conditions at the cellular and tissue level there actually are no signs of inflammation rather we see signs of degeneration chronic overloading and chronic repetitive use of
these tendons cause the accumulation of micro tears these micro tears cause the tendon to become thinned out to become disorganized and eventually become weaker and weaker all of this ultimately results in pain now this entire process of tendon degeneration is called tendinopathy and i made a deep dive video into the differences between tendonitis and tendinopathy and i'll put that video in the descriptions below check it out if you're interested so if tennis elbow and golfer's elbow is caused by a chronically degenerated tendon how do we start the healing process how do we help remodel and
regenerate those tendon tissues one of the most effective ways in doing that is starting a very structured rehabilitation program stretching will help increase mobility and increase range of motion and strengthening exercises reorganizes and remodels the tendon fibers and while a rehabilitation program will help most people i still see so many people who continue to struggle with both tennis elbow and golfer's elbow and this is despite being very diligent about keeping on top of their stretches and exercises after months and months and months they still continue to have pain and if that's you you may see
huge benefits from a treatment option that previously was only available to professional athletes and that's platelet-rich plasma injections now historically what we used to treat elbow tendinopathies were cortisone injections and cortisone is a steroid it's a very strong pain medication and it's a very strong anti-inflammatory medication and because we thought tennis elbow and gopher's elbow were inherently inflammatory conditions it made total sense to use cortisone injections a very strong anti-inflammatory medication to treat these conditions but we are very quickly learning that cortisone injections may actually be the wrong thing to do multiple studies are coming
out showing the toxicities of cortisone injections especially when placed around tendons and that's where prp injections come in systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials show that prp injections work incredibly well for the treatment of both tennis elbow and golfer's elbow people who got prp injections had better patient reported outcomes and more sustainable long-term pain relief one systematic review even compared prp injections to tennis elbow and golfer's elbow surgery and the researchers concluded in comparison with surgery prp injections offer similar improvements in pain and function for patients suffering from lateral epicondylitis let's stop to
think about why this works prp injections contain an incredible amount of your own platelets and platelets are responsible for tissue healing tissue remodeling tissue proliferation and most importantly in controlling pain so what we're doing with a platelet-rich plasma injection is we're drawing your own blood taking your own platelets out concentrating it and then injecting it under ultrasound guidance back into a chronically degenerated tendon and this is why many athletes choose to get prp injections in addition to starting a rehabilitation program prp injections put their bodies in the best position possible to heal as quickly and
as safely as possible many of my patients who learn about prp injections choose the same thing if you are struggling with pain from tennis elbow or golfer's elbow prp injections may be the answer for you it may be the kickstart that your body needs to get back to the path of recovery thanks for watching please share this video with anyone you know who has tennis elbow or golfer's elbow prp injections are new and the more people who learn about it the more people who can benefit from it i'll be making more videos on prp injections
for other indications such as plantar fasciitis as well as gluteal tendinopathies i'll also be making a video of the frequently asked questions that i get about platelet-rich plasma injections you can find me on social media i'm on twitter at jeffreypengmd and i write on my blog at jeffreypengmd.com thanks for watching
