DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i09.072

Pages: 3520-3529

The treatment for plantar fasciitis was local steroid infiltration since many years, but recently there is a shift towards fresh frozen plasma infiltration. Hence a comparative study was done between the two methods of treatment. 58 patients suffering from plantar fasciitis were included in the study. None of them had received any form of treatment in the past. Patients involved in the study were between 25 to 50 years. Of these 27 were females and 31 were males. Patients were selected randomly for both the treatment methods. About 3ml of fresh frozen plasma with 2 ml 2% lignocaine was injected to and around the tender spots under aseptic precaution. The second group of the patient were injected with 80mg of methylprednisolone with 2ml of 2% lignocaine. Patients were evaluated according to the visual analog scale and foot and ankle disability index before infiltration and subsequently at 2, 4, and 6 months following infiltration. In patients who underwent steroid infiltration, the ‘t’ value was 0.456 and the ‘p’ value was 0.651, which is stastically insignificant. In patients who underwent fresh frozen plasma infiltration, the ‘t’ value was 1.847 and the ‘p’ value was 0.075, which again is statistically insignificant. The study showed even though steroid and fresh frozen plasma given symptomatic relief, fresh frozen plasma infiltration shows relatively superior results compared to steroid. Although both the modalities of treatment are effective in the treatment of plantar fasciitis, fresh frozen plasma was found to be relatively safer with less complication and less chance of recurrence. So, fresh frozen plasma infiltration is a viable alternative to steroid infiltration in the treatment of plantar fasciitis.