Autologous blood injection in the treatment of lateral epicondylitis

Objective: To determine mean decrease in visual analogue pain score after autologous blood injection in patients with lateral epicondylitis. Methods: The quasi-experimental study was conducted at Ghurki Trust Hospital, Lahore, from December 10, 2012, to June 8, 2013, and comprised patients having lateral epicondylitis of elbow. Pre-procedure baseline visual analogue score was measured. Under aseptic conditions, 2ml of autologous blood was drawn from the contra-lateral antecubital fossa of the patient and slowly injected into the site of maximum tenderness. Patients were advised to continue their normal daily activities and were followed up at third and sixth week for assessment of pain intensity. Mean decrease was calculated by subtracting the post-procedure visual analogue score from the baseline value. SPSS 11 was used for data analysis. Results: Of the 150 patients in the study, there were 127(84.7%) males and 23(15.3%) females. Male-to-female ratio was 5.5:1 Overall mean age of was 33.91 +/- 10.23 years. The mean pre-injection pain score was 8.97 +/- 1.02 and post-injection was 3.59 +/- 1.58. Mean decrease in VAS pain score was 5.37 +/- 1.80. Conclusion: Autolgous blood injection was found to be an effective way to treat patients of epicondylitis elbow.