Photo Credit: Alona Siniehina
The following is a summary of “Autologous Peripheral Blood-Derived Orthobiologics for the Management of Elbow Disorders: A Review of Current Clinical Evidence,” published in the January 2025 issue of Pain by Gupta et al.
Elbow ailments are common, and current treatments often only provide temporary pain relief. The use of autologous peripheral blood-derived orthobiologics (APBOs), including the widely used but debatably effective platelet-rich plasma (PRP), has increased in recent decades, leading to exploration of other APBOs like platelet lysate (PL), autologous conditioned serum (ACS), gold-induced cytokine (GOLDIC), plasma rich in growth factors (PRGF), autologous protein solution (APS), and hyperacute serum (HS).
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to summarize the results of clinical studies on the efficacy of APBOs in managing elbow disorders and reviewed ongoing clinical studies from various trial repositories.
They adhered to the 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. In December 2024, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were accessed with no additional filters or time constraints. All available clinical studies published in English, French, Spanish, German, or Italian regarding the management of elbow disorders using APBOs were included.
The results showed 3 clinical studies met the predefined criteria, including 2 on PL and 1 on ACS. A total of 99 patients were included, with 57.6% (57/99) being women. The mean age was 42.0 ± 3.5 years, and the average follow-up period was 11.9 ± 0.6 months. No complications were reported. The studies showed a low to medium risk of bias and a very low methodological quality score. No studies on GOLDIC, PRGF, APS, or HS were found, and only 1 ongoing study involving PL was registered.
Investigators concluded that while existing studies suggested APBOs like PL and ACS might be safe and effective for elbow disorders.
Source: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40122-025-00707-9
