Chronic tendinopathies represent a major problem in the clinical practice of sports orthopaedic surgeons, sports doctors and other health professionals involved in the treatment of athletes and patients that perform repetitive actions. The lack of consensus relative to the diagnostic tools and treatment modalities represents a management dilemma for these professionals. With this review, the purpose of the ESSKA Basic Science Committee is to establish guidelines for understanding, diagnosing and treating this complex pathology.

The convincing background of the recent studies, investigating the different potentials of platelet-rich plasma, offers the clinician an appealing alternative for the treatment of cartilage lesions and osteoarthritis. Recent evidences in literature have shown that PRP may be helpful both as an adjuvant for surgical treatment of cartilage defects and as a therapeutic tool by intra-articular injection in patients affected by osteoarthritis. In this review, the authors introduce the trophic and anti-inflammatory properties of PRP and the different products of the available platelet concentrates. Then, in a complex scenario made of a great number of clinical variables, they resume the current literature on the PRP applications in cartilage surgery as well as the use of intra-articular PRP injections for the conservative treatment of cartilage degenerative lesions and osteoarthritis in humans, available as both case series and comparative studies. The result of this review confirms the fascinating biological role of PRP, although many aspects yet remain to be clarified and the use of PRP in a clinical setting has to be considered still exploratory.