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