Comparison of The Short-Term Results of Single Injection of Autologous Blood with Steroid Injection in Lateral Epicondylitis

Abstract

Objective: To compare the short term results of single injection of autologous blood with steroid injection in lateral epicondylitis.
Methodology: This study was conducted at Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, PIMS Islamabad. Study design was randomized controlled trial. Duration of study was one year (28-1-16 to 28-1-17). In this study a total 94 (47 in each group) patients were observed Patients who were previously untreated and had no other identifiable cause of lateral elbow pain, those reporting with the typical symptoms of tennis elbow and having no radiographic cause of pain were included. All the patients were divided in two groups randomly on basis of lottery method. In Group-A patients were given 40mg of methyl prednisolone acetate mixed with 1ml of 2% lidocaine injection. In Group-B patients were given 2ml of autologous venous blood drawn from either of the upper limbs mixed with 1ml of 2% lidocaine. Pain evaluation was done via Visual Analogue Scoring at 6th week OPD follow and the pain was evaluated on visual analogue score.
Results: The age of the patients ranged from 15 years to 80 years with a mean of 42.84±15.80 years. 55 (58.5%) patients were aged between 15-45 years while 39 (41.5%) patients were aged between 46-80 years. There were 37 (39.4%) male and 57 (60.6%) female patients with a male to female ratio of 1:1.5. Both the groups were comparable in terms of mean age (p=0.801) and age (p=0.834) and gender (p=0.833) group distribution. At 6thweek follow-up, the mean VAS score for pain was significantly lower in patients treated with methyl prednisolone (2.09±0.91 vs. 3.47±1.12; p<0.001) as compared to those treated with autologous blood and this difference was significant across all age and gender groups.
Conclusion: Steroid injection was found to be superior to autologous blood injection in terms of significantly lower mean VAS score for pain after 6 weeks of injection in patients presenting with tennis elbow.