Plantar Fasciitis Case Study

Platelets rich plasma for treatment of chronic plantar fasciitis
Abstract
Background Plantar fasciitis is a common cause of heel pain in adults. Many treatment options exist. Platelets rich plasma (PRP) is derived from autologous blood and con-tains high concentration of growth factors necessary for tis-sue healing. The use of PRP in the treatment of plantar fasciitis is a fairly recent and evolving concept. The pur-pose of our work was to study the eVectiveness of PRP treatment for chronic plantar fasciitis.

Materials and methods Between February 2010 and June 2011, 25 patients with chronic plantar fasciitis with a mean age of 44 years were treated by PRP injection and included in this prospective study. All patients were assessed for the

The function of plantar fascia is to provide static support of the longitudinal arch and dynamic shock absorption [1]. Plantar fasciitis is a common cause of heel pain in adults. Pain is usually caused by collagen degeneration at the origin of the plantar fascia. The cause of degeneration is repetitive microtears of the plantar fascia that overcome the body’s to repair [2]. The classic sign of plantar fasciitis is that the worst pain occurs with the Wrst few steps in the morning or at the beginning of the activity that lessens as they warm up. In more severe cases, pain will also worsen toward the end of the day

The average thickness of the symptomatic medial band prior to injection was 7.1 mm as compared to the average thickness of the asymptomatic medial band, which was 4.9 mm. The average thickness of the symptomatic central band prior to injection was 6.6 versus 4.3 mm for the asymptomatic side. The average thickness of the symptomatic lateral band prior to injection was 4.6 versus 3.7 mm for the asymptomatic side. The post-injection measurement was obtained at 2 weeks, 6 weeks, and 3 months and revealed signiWcant changes not only in the thickness but also in the signal intensity of the fascial bands. At 2 weeks post-injection the medial band showed an average reduction in thickness of 1.4 mm. By 6 weeks, the average reduction in thickness was 1.9 mm. At 3 months, it was 2.3 mm. At the end of 3 months, the average thickness of the symptomatic medial and central bands was 4.8 and 5.4 mm respectively (P <