Literature review to justify the use of autologous blood injections in the treatment of lateral epicondyle tendinopathy

Abstract

Objective

To review the available literature on the use of autologous blood injections in the treatment of lateral epicondyle tendinopathy.

Method

Databases of EMBASE, PubMed, Psychinfo, and Medline OvidSP were searched for English language human studies without limit of time. Main search keywords were autologous blood, blood products, lateral epicondylitis, and tennis elbow. All papers not using autologous blood were removed and search further refined using the NHS e-Library, The Knowledge Network, utilizing Dynamed to search under lateral epicondylitis and autologous blood. Owing to the low number of trials all papers using autologous blood were included.

Results

Review revealed three case study reports, four randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and two meta-analyses.

Conclusion

There is no level 1 evidence for efficacy, but encouragingly there is no evidence of harm and the obvious conclusion is that an adequately powered, primary care anatomically guided injection trial of autologous blood is required to progress the debate.

Keywords:

• Autologous blood
• Blood products
• Lateral epicondylitis
• Tennis elbow