Treatment of tendinopathies : role for autologous whole blood and platelet-rich plasma injections

Chronic degenerative tendinopathies are frequent and difficult to treat. Tendon healing is under influence of many growth factors that can be obtained from patient’s blood (platelet-rich plasma). Basic research is quite optimistic but evidence-based studies examining the treatment of human tendinopathies are lacking. Nevertheless, such treatments are increasingly used in clinical practice and expectations of those injections are high. However, the use of autologous blood injections for the management of chronic human tendinopathies can currently not be recommended.