PRP is platelet rich plasma. PRP is a substance from a person’s own blood. PRP is injected to help with certain pain conditions. PRP and prolotherapy are sometimes considered part of “regenerative medicine.”
PRP and prolotherapy injections are mostly used in instances where someone has a condition like a tendon tear or a ligament tear. In those types of conditions, the hope is that the PRP or prolotherapy injection will promote inflammation at the site in order to help cause healing of the tendon or ligament.
There is not great research on PRP or prolotherapy injections to help with the coccyx pain.
Theoretically, PRP or prolotherapy injections might help with hypermobility of the coccyx. But most people with coccyx pain never have the proper sitting-versus-standing coccyx x-rays done to accurately or confidently confirm whether they do or do not have hypermobility.
Some folks with coccyx pain have hypOmobility (less joint movement than normal), and the PRP injections would potentially make that even worse.
Some folks have coccyx pain caused by a bone spur. A bone spur is additional bone, typically pointing down from the lower tip of the coccyx, pinching the patient’s skin into the chair that they are sitting on. I would not expect PRP or prolotherapy injections to help with pain from a coccyx bone spur.
Lastly, even if a person does have coccyx pain that is indeed due to hypermobility, it would be crucial to have the sitting-versus-standing coccyx x-rays to confirm which specific joint, and there is no guarantee that the PRP/Prolotherapy injection would get the joint to stay in the ideal position. After injection, at the coccyx you can not put the coccyx in a cast or a brace (like you could with a finger, for example), so there is the potential risk that the coccyx would get “stuck” in the dislocated or wrong position, rather than in the ideal position.
In summary, I find the topic VERY interesting and there is some potential for PRP or prolotherapy injections to help with some very specific, properly selected patients with coccyx pain. But so far there is not great research supporting this. Hopefully more research in the future will better answer which patients this may help versus those it may harm versus those for whom it would have no effect one way or the other.
COME FOR RELIEF: For more information on coccyx pain, or to be evaluated in-person by Dr. Foye’s Coccyx Pain Center in the United States, go to: www.TailboneDoctor.com
– Patrick Foye, M.D., Director of the Tailbone Pain Center, New Jersey, United States.
His personable, private-practice office is located on a modern, renowned, academic medical school campus, at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.
For an appointment, call 973-972-2802.
https://tailbonedoctor.com/
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