PRP therapy for the treatment of lumbar facet syndrome in professional team sports athletes

Aim. The paper aims to analyze the clinical efficacy of PRP therapy for the treatment of isolated lumbar facet syndrome (FS) in professional team sports athletes and their return to sports activity. Materials and methods. The study involved 41 team sports athletes, including 10 football players, 8 volleyball players, 9 basketball players, 6 hockey players, 8 ball hockey players. All patients met the inclusion criteria and underwent PRP therapy of the facet joints (FJ) in the period from 2017-2019. Treatment efficacy was assessed by clinical data, perioperative complications and the time to return to sports. The average follow-up period was 18 months. Results. In the long-term postoperative period, the following observations were made: a decrease in the VAS scores of pain intensity in the lumbar spine from 68 (61; 84) mm to 3 (2; 5) mm (p = 0.002); a significant improvement of SF-36 scores with respect to the physical and psychological components of health from 26.18 (23.96; 28.25) to 49.76 (48.16; 53.03) (p = 0.002) and from 27.73 (22,51; 29.29) to 52.68 (48.36;56.94) (p = 0.004), respectively; a significant improvement of Borg RPE Scale values with respect to the perception of physical activity from 16-18 points (median 17 points) to 6-8 points (median 7 points) (p function show_eabstract() { $('#eabstract1').hide(); $('#eabstract2').show(); $('#eabstract_expand').hide(); }