• Gordon D Ko, Sean Mindra, Gordon E Lawson, Scott Whitmore, and Leigh Arseneau.
• Department of Medicine, Division of Physiatry, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the Canadian Centre for Integrative Medicine, University of Toronto, ON, Canada.
• J Back Musculoskelet Rehabil. 2017 Jan 1; 30 (2): 363-370.

BackgroundTwo-thirds of adults worldwide will experience low back pain at some point in their life. In the following case series, we present four patients with sacroiliac (SI) joint instability and severe chronic low back pain, which was refractory to other treatment modalities.ObjectiveWe investigated the efficacy of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections, a novel orthobiologic therapy, for reducing SI joint pain, improving quality of life, and maintaining a clinical effect.MethodsShort-form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SFM), Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), and Oswestry Low Back Pain and Disability Index were used for evaluation of treatment at pretreatment, 12-months and 48-months after treatment.ResultsAt follow-up 12-months post-treatment, pooled data from all patients reported a marked improvement in joint stability, a statistically significant reduction in pain, and improvement in quality of life. The clinical benefits of PRP were still significant at 4-years post-treatment.ConclusionsPlatelet-rich plasma therapy exhibits clinical usefulness in both pain reduction and for functional improvement in patients with chronic SI joint pain. The improvement in joint stability and low back pain was maintained at 1- and 4-years post-treatment.

28 keywords...

hide…