Ross Hauser, MD, Danielle Matias, PA-C, Demi Foster, APRN

Platelet Rich Plasma injections are regenerative in nature, providing stability, tissue repair, and pain relief. The PRP injections are often given with Prolotherapy injections to provide a whole joint treatment.

• PRP treatment takes your blood, like going for a blood test, and reintroduces the concentrated blood platelets from your blood into the areas impacting your trigger fingers and thumb.
• Your blood platelets contain growth and healing factors. When concentrated through simple centrifuging, your blood plasma becomes “rich” in healing factors, thus the name Platelet RICH plasma.
• The procedure and preparation of therapeutic doses of growth factors consist of an autologous blood collection (blood from the patient), plasma separation (blood is centrifuged), and application of the plasma rich in growth factors (injecting the plasma into the area). In our office, patients are generally seen every 4-6 weeks. Typically, three to six visits are necessary per area.
• In much of the research surrounding PRP treatments, you will see single injections given and then monitored for months. This is not the way we perform these treatments. In our 27+ years of clinical experience, we have noted that degenerative damage requires a more comprehensive approach. Even so, improvements in single-shot treatments have been noted in the medical literature.

We have used Platelet Rich Plasma for many disorders, and again, we want to stress this aspect; it is not a treatment that we consider “stand-alone.” We combine this treatment with Prolotherapy in an effort to maximize the benefit and long-term repair of the problems that are causing the patient’s trigger finger.

Researchers are anxious to demonstrate the same effectiveness that many clinicians have reported empirically (the observation of improved symptoms in their patients). In November 2020, the medical journal Trials (1) announced such research.

Here is what they wrote:

“The initial treatment (of trigger finger) is generally a local corticosteroid injection around the first annular (A1) pulley. However, it is not unusual that surgical release of the A1 pulley is required. Moreover, adverse events after local corticosteroid injection or operative treatment may occur. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has been shown to be safe and to reduce symptoms in different tendon pathologies, such as De Quervain’s disease.”

The researchers point out that the effects of PRP on trigger finger have not been studied or published, and the aim of this new study is to compare and examine PRP to corticosteroid injection in treating trigger finger. The secondary outcome is to assess the safety and efficacy of PRP in comparison to placebo. “The results of the trial will indicate if PRP is appropriate for the treatment of trigger finger.”

The ligaments of the A1 Pulley – Is Trigger Finger a Ligament Sprain?

In this one-minute video, Ross Hauser, MD, explains the concept of ligament damage and finger instability

The case of a 63-year old woman with trigger finger

As noted, there is limited research on PRP injections in people with trigger finger. A July 2022 case history from the University of Malaga Faculty of Health Sciences in Spain (2) described treatment in a 63-year-old woman. The doctors wrote: “Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has emerged as a viable therapeutic alternative for a number of clinical applications and has potential benefit for use in trigger finger. However, PRP use has not been previously reported for this condition. We report a 63-year-old woman sustaining a refractory trigger finger after a series of three PRP injections over a 2-week period. There was resolution of triggering, with no symptom recurrence at 3-month follow-up. On the basis of this report, we can assume that the treatment of trigger finger with PRP is a promising therapeutic option to be further explored with larger samples and high-quality studies.”

More articles

Stenosing Tenosynovitis: Trigger finger treatment without surgery

References

1 Aspinen S, Nordback PH, Anttila T, Stjernberg-Salmela S, Ryhänen J, Kosola J. Platelet-rich plasma versus corticosteroid injection for treatment of trigger finger: study protocol for a prospective randomized triple-blind placebo-controlled trial. Trials. 2020 Dec;21(1):1-9. [Google Scholar]
2 Medina-Porqueres I, Martin-Garcia P, Sanz-De-Diego S, Reyes-Eldblom M. Platelet-rich plasma in the management of trigger finger: A case report. Agri: Agri (Algoloji) Dernegi’nin Yayin Organidir= The Journal of the Turkish Society of Algology. 2022 Jul 1;34(3):222-4. [Google Scholar]