Clinical trial -- Lumbar Intradiscal Platelet Rich Plasma Injections

[Liz]

Clinical trial -- Hospital for Special Surgery (New York)

Lumbar Intradiscal Platelet Rich Plasma Injections: A Prospective, Double-blinded, Randomized Controlled Study
(posted September 16, 2009)

This clinical trial is for patients with discogenic low back pain as determined by discography.

see http://www.hss.edu/clinical-trials_s...injections.asp for more information including inclusion/exclusion criteria.

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Justin (or others members), what do you think of this as a potential means of helping patients with discogenic low back pain? i've heard of platelet rich plasma being used in prolotherapy for lax ligaments around joints, but this is the first i've heard of it being used/tested for this use.

[Justin]

Hi Liz,

Thanks for posting this clinical trial. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is now being used in many fields of surgery. PRP is useful in that activated platelets are able to release many growth factors that help in a wide variety of ways. Platelets are key in the wound healing cascade: they form the fibrin clot during healing, so that we don't bleed to death from a simple cut. PRP is frequently used to help promote healing in lumbar fusions, fractures, etc. It will be exciting to see the results of this intradiscal study.