Stem cells and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) have entered the scene over the past decade as additional options to help aging athletes deal with arthritis and tendinitis, as well as recover from
certain muscle, tendon, and ligament tears. While science is still catching up to the hype, these treatments aim to patch the wear and tear that comes with decades of competition.
Stem cells can be harvested from bone marrow or fat tissue (Hip bone or abdominal area respectively), and both have shown promise. When injected into degenerative or injured areas, the hope is that they’ll help regenerate damaged cartilage, tendons, or muscle. In cases of knee osteoarthritis and chronic patellar tendinopathy, stem cell injections have been reported to provide improvements in pain and function; however, their overall effectiveness remains controversial in the literature.
Not all studies have been glowing; in partial rotator cuff tears, stem cell treatments did not perform better than placebo in terms of pain relief or healing. While stem cells show potential, they are not yet a guaranteed solution. Additionally, the cost of the procedure is often several thousand dollars, and it is not normally covered by insurance Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy, on the other hand, can be initiated with a simple blood draw. It uses a concentrated dose of a patient’s own platelets to try to speed healing and tamp down inflammation.
This can be done in the office in a relatively cost-effective way and takes about 45 minutes to draw the blood, spin it down in the centrifuge, and inject back into the patient. Sounds awesome, right? The reality is a bit more mixed.
PRP hasn’t consistently outperformed placebo in treating osteoarthritis in joints like the knee and ankle, and it often falls short when compared to simply exercising and staying strong. However, PRP has shown some bright spots: for partial rotator cuff tears and tendinopathies like tennis elbow, short-term pain relief and function did improve more with PRP than with corticosteroid injections. Still, these benefits tend to fade over time, and in resistant cases like Achilles tendinopathy or chronic knee issues, PRP hasn’t reliably outshined traditional treatments like dry needling or exercise.
While less expensive than stem cell therapy, PRP is not covered by insurance, and will set the patient back in the neighborhood of $1000. Importantly, stem cells and PRP seem to be able to help aging athletes recoup, recover, and stay active longer in many circumstances, but the preponderance of literature indicates that stem cell and PRP therapies mainly treat symptoms, not the root cause. To date, they remain a tool in the ‘armamentarium,’ but not the ultimate cure.
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