Table 4

Subgroup analysis of patient and study-related factors on tendinopathy pain improvement with PRP versus control injection

Comparison	Number of studies	SMD	p Value*
Female proportion†
≥54%	8	0.71	0.02
<54%	6	0.11
Tendinopathy location
Lateral epicondylar	12	0.57	0.18
Other	6	0.26
Corticosteroid control
Yes	7	0.63	0.27
No	11	0.36
No. of injections
One	15	0.51	0.39
Two	3	0.23
PRP leucocyte concentration
Increased (type 1 or 2)‡	9	0.35	0.43
Minimal or none (type 3 or 4)‡	8	0.58
Patient age†
<48 years	7	0.59	0.44
≥48 years	7	0.34
Pain assessment tool
VAS	10	0.55	0.51
Other	8	0.39
PRP platelet concentration
≥5× (type A)‡	10	0.42	0.59
<5× (type B)‡	8	0.58
Maximum follow-up
12 months	6	0.60	0.67
6 months	6	0.49
3 months	6	0.29
Total sample size†
≥35 patients	9	0.48	0.90
<35 patients	9	0.45
Minimum symptom duration
6 months	5	0.57	0.91
3 months	6	0.51
<3 months	5	0.43
Risk of bias
Uncertain	4	0.47	>0.99
High	14	0.47

*p Value for subgroup comparisons.
†Values for comparisons represent the median for all studies.
‡From Mishra et al.41
PRP, platelet—rich plasma; SMD, standard mean difference; VAS, visual analogue scale.