title: Achilles tendinopathy management: A pilot randomised controlled trial comparing platelet-richplasma injection with an eccentric loading programme.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To conduct a pilot randomised controlled trial to evaluate the feasibility of conducting a larger trial to evaluate the difference in Victorian Institute of Sports Assessment-Achilles (VISA-A) scores at six months between patients with Achilles tendinopathy treated with a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection compared with an eccentric loading programme.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two groups of patients with mid-substance Achilles tendinopathy were randomised to receive a PRP injection or an eccentric loading programme. A total of 20 patients were randomised, with a mean age of 49 years (35 to 66). All outcome measures were recorded at baseline, six weeks, three months and six months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean VISA-A score for the injection group at the primary endpoint of six months was 76.0 (95% confidence interval (CI) 58.3 to 93.7) and for the exercise group was 57.4 (95% CI 38.1 to 76.7). There was no statistically significant difference between these scores (p = 0.171), which was expected from such a pilot study.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This pilot study has been key to providing data to inform a larger study and shows that the methodology is feasible. Cite this article: Bone Joint Res 2013;2:227-32.
authors.affiliation: University of Warwick, WarwickMedical School, Coventry CV2 2DX, UK.
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Kearney
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Parsons
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Costa
keywords: Achilles tendon; Eccentric loading; Platelet rich plasma