How About Heel Pain?

Plantar fasciitis is a common condition that occasionally is difficult to treat successfully. Pain can linger despite treatment (rest, physical therapy, silicone heel lifts, CAM (controlled ankle motion) walker bracing, cast immobilization, night splinting, and nonsteroidal medication) for many months, or even years. Corticosteroid injections are commonly provided when other methods have failed to provide relief.

Raymond Rocco Monto, MD, published a paper, “PRP Is More Effective than Cortisone for Chronic Severe Plantar Fasciitis” and shared his results here.

Two groups of patients were treated; one group with corticosteroid injection and the other with platelet rich plasma injection to the plantar fascia. Both groups showed improvement at 3 months, but only the PRP group demonstrated sustained relief at 6 months, 12 months and beyond.

“I have been most impressed by the durability of the treatment,” said Dr. Monto. “I had expected the results to degrade over time. In the early results, the cortisone patients did very well, but after initial follow-up, their scores began to recede, and at 6 months the difference was significant. At 12 months, many of the patients who received cortisone had returned to their baseline, whereas the PRP-treated patients had retained most of their improvement. I continue to monitor the patients’ progress, with the goal of reporting 2-year follow-up.

If you have chronic heel pain from plantar fasciits that hasn’t improved after conservative treatment, then PRP is likely a good option for you.

Contact us today to learn more.