Abstract :
[en] Introduction: The treatment of patellar tendinopathies could be difficult. Recent systematic review concluded that PRP could be recommend as a treatment in such indication. Recently, the viscoelastic properties of hyaluronic acid (HA) on liquid connective tissue have been proposed for the treatment of tendinopathies. Some observations also support its use in a clinical setting to improve pain and function. We aimed to compare the effect of PRP injection versus two injections of HA after three months on patients who have a proximal patellar tendinopathy.
Methods: Thirty-three sportsmen with proximal patellar tendinopathies being not relieved after minimum three months of normal physiotherapy treatments where included. Eighteen of them (group 1) have received a leukocyte poor PRP injection (obtained using an aphaeresis machine (3)) and the other fifteen (group 2) two HA injections, all of them have benefited of standardized rehabilitation. Concerning the evaluation of the pathology, algo-functional tests (visual analogic scale (VAS), pressure algometer, IKDC score, VISA-P score), isokinetic (associated to VAS) along with the patellar tendon ultrasonography (US) have been realized over three times (pre-injection, after 6 weeks, after 3 months post-injections).
Results: The results of VAS (p<0,01), algometric scores (p<0,01), IKDC scores (p<0,01) and VISA-P (p<0,01) show a considerable improvement in the two groups, but not for the US findings. For the group 1, isokinetic tests show significative results for the hamstrings in C60°/s with an improvement of maximum peak torque (p=0,01) for the pathological member, a diminution (p>0,05) for the healthy limb and during the analysis of the bilateral difference (p=0,0002). For the group 2, the improvement of quadriceps maximum peak torque in C240°/s is significant (p>0,01) for the pathological knee after 6 weeks post-injections only. The VAS associated with isokinetic tests decreases significantly for all contraction modes after three months of study.
Conclusion: Both PRP and HA can improve the symptoms of proximal patellar tendinopathy, even if the results are slightly better in the PRP group.
