Platelet Lysate?

[Darkwave]

So…very long story short, I’ve been dealing with weakness and poor coordination in my legs, combined with balance issues for the past 6 months. Also burning pain down my legs when I sit in a car or lie in bed.

I have been checked up and down all over the place - MRIs of brain, cervical spine, thoracic spine, lumbar spine, pelvis; EMG/NCS, neurological study - none of it found much.

I’ve done 6 weeks of PT that accomplished nothing. I’ve been checked out by a cardiologist and a rheumatologist (both fine) and my primary care doctor has run bloodwork for everything under the sun - all looks good.

The one thing that possibly gave some answers as to the cause of my issues happened three weeks ago, when my physiatrist did an epidural cortisone shot into L5, where he thought he saw a slight disc bulge and some foraminal narrowing. The intention was not to cure but to diagnose - see if the shot made a temporary difference.

And wow, it did. For about 8 days post cortisone shot, I had my legs back (then the clumbsiness returned). Meanwhile, the burning pain I sometimes experienced down my legs diminished and then vanished.

Met with the physiatrist again, and discussed options - they come down to:

1. do nothing and hope things slowly improve.
2. try another epidural cortisone shot.
3. try a platelet lysate injection at L5.
4. talk to surgeons to see if they see anything in my MRI worth acting on.

I don’t really see doing nothing (option 1) as an option, as this currently sucks. I also see surgery (option 4) as only a last resort (and perhaps there’s not even anything to operate on).

As for option 2, I have bad bone density (borderline osteopenia/osteoporosis) so I am really reluctant to do any more cortisone injections. Physiatrist agreed and recommended platelet lysate injections - my first is scheduled for next Wednesday. This guy has previously done PRP injections on me with great results, so I trust him.

All of that backstory is explaining how I got to this point, and why I’m getting injections in my back despite a pretty good MRI.

My question is - has anyone else tried platelet lysate injections for spinal issues? If so, what was your experience?

[Simkie]

I did a round of PRP & lysate at several facet joints with fairly good results. I’m a big fan of these regenerative therapies as they very rarely cause harm and can be quite successful. That you had a good result from the previous injection is positive, although I’d be curious if that was due to the anesthetic (if one was used?) or actually the steroid.

I hope it helps, and gives you more relief than only eight days!

[Darkwave]

Thank you - very helpful to read this!

The previous epidural injection was lidocaine as the local pain killer, and betamethasone for the steroid. My understanding is that lidocaine is very short-lived, and that betamethasone was expected to last for a week or two.