PRP for Rotator Cuff Tear – Does it really work?
As physicians, we draw blood from the patient, we spin it down in a centrifuge and harvest those proteins in our body that allow for healing and inflammation. And we inject that back into these areas of injury. In this case, a rotator cuff tear.
Athletes have used this. Other people have tried it with success.
And so, this is one of those areas that’s kind of… you could call it a budding area of medicine where we’re putting more emphasis or focus on trying to figure out, how do we utilize that technology to improve our outcomes, to improve people’s ability to heal, possibly avoid surgery?
What I would tell you about PRP is that it can work in certain situations. This is something that has to be applied to the right patient with the right type of injury. In the rotator cuff world, PRP is not something that I would recommend for a full thickness, large rotator cuff tear. These are typically small thickness or small, incomplete, partial thickness rotator cuff tears that we use to specifically target with PRP. Because those have the best chance of responding favorably to that line of treatment.
