Platelet Rich Plasma vs Surgey in Chronic Tennis Elbow
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Platelet Rich Plasma vs Open Surgery in the Treatment of Chronic Lateral Epicondylar Tendonopathy (Tennis Elbow)\nA Pilot Randomized Control Trial \n
IRAS ID
179045
Contact name
Chris Smith
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 0 days
Research summary
Pain around the outside of the elbow, often referred to as Tennis Elbow, is a common problem in working age people. The condition is not restricted to sports people and often affects manual workers. The pain around the elbow may results in time off work and the common treatments of pain killers, an elbow brace or steroid injections are often ineffective. In a small proportion of patient surgery is needed, though this is known to be a good treatment it carries risks such as wound infection and painful scarring, it also requires an anaesthetic. Injection of a concentrated form of the patients own blood cells into the painful tendons around the elbow is being increasingly used. It removes the risk associated with surgery and is cheaper and quicker to perform. There is some evidence that it is an effective treatment, however it has never been directly compared to surgery so we are unable to tell if it is a good alternative. We would like to perform a pilot study to compare outpatient injections to surgery in those patients who have not got better with simple treatments. The data from this study will be used to design a larger study that will be able to answer if this technique is as good as surgery.
REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SW/0007
Date of REC Opinion
25 Feb 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion