Predictors of Outcome Following Tenotomy in Patients with Recalcitrant Epicondylopathy.

BACKGROUND: Elbow tendinopathies are associated with tenderness, pain, and functional disability with ensuing socioeconomic costs. There is lack of consensus regarding the best treatment for patients recalcitrant to first-line conservative treatments. Percutaneous needle tenotomy is considered a regenerative approach that injures the tendon to elicit a healing response. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether demographic characteristics, clinical factors, baseline sonographic entities, or their interactions are related to the likelihood of responding positively to needle tenotomy over a 1-year follow-up period. DESIGN: Prospective case series. SETTING: Tertiary institutional hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Patients with elbow tendinopathy for whom conservative treatments had failed and who had persistent symptoms lasting for at least 3 months. METHODS: Patients underwent needle tenotomy with or without PRP followed by a lighter needle tenotomy within a 2-week interval as part of treatment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) and Visual Analogue Scale for pain (VAS-P) scores were assessed before intervention (baseline) and at 6 weeks and 3, 6, and 12 months after intervention. A generalized linear mixed effects model was created to examine whether injectate type, clinical, demographic, or pretreatment sonographic entities or their interactions influenced clinical outcomes. RESULTS: The authors analyzed 74 elbows (71 patients). At baseline, analyzed patients (mean age: 49.48 years; 51.35% women) scored 43.30 and 5.83 on the DASH and VAS-P, respectively. Pretreatment tendon vascularization was a predictor of pain (P = .011) and DASH score changes (P = .019). The linear mixed effect model revealed that male gender and hypercholesterolemia were associated with enhanced functional recovery, (P = .020 and P < .001, respectively). Moreover, the interactions between pretreatment vascular status (P = .039), echotexture (P = .037) and enthesophytes (P = .028) influenced the temporal pattern of functional recovery after needle tenotomy. CONCLUSIONS: Baseline patient characteristics, such as gender and hypercholesterolemia, along with ultrasound features may be predictive of outcomes following needle tenotomy for elbow tendinopathy. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV (NCT01945528).

Adjuvant Biological Therapies in Chronic Leg Ulcers.

Current biological treatments for non-healing wounds aim to address the common deviations in healing mechanisms, mainly inflammation, inadequate angiogenesis and reduced synthesis of extracellular matrix. In this context, regenerative medicine strategies, i.e., platelet rich plasmas and mesenchymal stromal cell products, may form part of adjuvant interventions in an integral patient management. We synthesized the clinical experience on ulcer management using these two categories of biological adjuvants. The results of ten controlled trials that are included in this systematic review favor the use of mesenchymal stromal cell based-adjuvants for impaired wound healing, but the number and quality of studies is moderate-low and are complicated by the diversity of biological products. Regarding platelet-derived products, 18 controlled studies investigated their efficacy in chronic wounds in the lower limb, but the heterogeneity of products and protocols hinders clinically meaningful quantitative synthesis. Most patients were diabetic, emphasizing an unmet medical need in this condition. Overall, there is not sufficient evidence to inform routine care, and further clinical research is necessary to realize the full potential of adjuvant regenerative medicine strategies in the management of chronic leg ulcers.