# What may help each sore body part *Help by Body Part — PRP Therapy Mesa* > PRP therapy Mesa guidance for knee, hip, shoulder, and tendon soreness, with easy care and reasons to arrange an exam. ## What to notice about the sore spot A knee may hurt on the first stairs, while a hip may ache after sitting. Dressing or reaching for a shelf often brings out shoulder soreness. Pushing off or gripping can make a tendon hurt. Tell the clinic which task brings on the ache instead of giving only a number from a pain scale. A recent strain, arthritis, or an earlier injury can leave a joint stiff. A tendon can grow sore when activity suddenly increases or the same work repeats. The exact sore area and the movement that hurts will help guide an exam. We’ll keep that simple. ## What to try for aching knees, hips, and shoulders For knee or hip soreness, a few brief walks may be easier than one long outing. Supportive shoes and a cane can reduce the strain when you need them. Easy bending and straightening may keep stiffness from settling in. Sharp pain is a reason to stop. With a sore shoulder, try keeping daily reaches below the place where it catches. Heat can help before easy motion, and cold may feel soothing afterward. Supporting the arm in bed may also be more comfortable. If weakness appears suddenly, the exam shouldn’t wait. ## When to bring the exact body part to a visit Please note whether the soreness sits in the joint, above it, or below it. You can take any earlier X-ray or MRI report and your medicines to the visit. The clinic may check strength, motion, swelling, and the movements that hurt. That’s enough to begin a useful talk. Care may include exercise, a brace, medicines, or a talk about surgery. When we say PRP, we mean platelet-rich plasma, the concentrated platelet layer separated from blood drawn from you. Studies don’t give the same answer for each body part, so ask whether people with your exact sore area felt better. QC Kinetix offers biologic therapies, meaning care without surgery in which its clinic team uses that platelet layer after examining you and reviewing your health. ## Sources 1. In the RESTORE trial - the largest placebo-controlled PRP trial in knee osteoarthritis - 288 adults aged 50+ with symptomatic Kellgren-Lawrence grade 2-3 medial knee OA received three weekly intra-articular injections of leukocyte-poor PRP from a commercial system or saline placebo. At 12 months the mean change in knee pain was -2.1 points with PRP versus -1.8 with saline (difference -0.4; 95% CI -0.9 to 0.2; P=.17) against a minimum clinically important difference of 1.8, and the change in medial tibial cartilage volume was -1.4% versus -1.2% (difference -0.2%; 95% CI -1.9% to 1.5%; P=.81). Twenty-nine of 31 prespecified secondary outcomes showed no significant between-group difference. The authors concluded the findings do not support use of PRP for knee OA. Bennell KL, Paterson KL, Metcalf BR, et al. — [Effect of Intra-articular Platelet-Rich Plasma vs Placebo Injection on Pain and Medial Tibial Cartilage Volume in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: The RESTORE Randomized Clinical Trial](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34812863/). *JAMA*, 2021. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2021.19415. 2. A network meta-analysis of 11 randomized trials (1353 patients) with HIP osteoarthritis found that for both pain and function, at 2-4 months and at 6 months, NO intervention - corticosteroid, hyaluronic acid or PRP - significantly outperformed an intra-articular saline placebo injection. Gazendam A, Ekhtiari S, Bozzo A, et al. — [Intra-articular saline injection is as effective as corticosteroids, platelet-rich plasma and hyaluronic acid for hip osteoarthritis pain: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32829298/). *British Journal of Sports Medicine*, 2021. DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2020-102179. 3. An updated meta-analysis of six randomized trials (422 patients) found no benefit of PRP over placebo for Achilles tendinopathy on VISA-A at 3 months (mean difference 1.7; 95% CI -1.8 to 5.2), 6 months (0.5; 95% CI -8.5 to 9.3) or 1 year (-7.9; 95% CI -27.3 to 11.6), nor on VAS pain at 3 months. Funnel-plot asymmetry suggested publication bias inflating apparent benefits. The authors wrote that PRP should not be used to treat Achilles tendinopathy until high-quality trials show a clear clinical benefit. Barreto ESR, Antunes Junior CR, Silva IC, et al. — [Is Platelet-rich Plasma Effective in Treating Achilles Tendinopathy? A Meta-analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39745256/). *Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research*, 2025. DOI: 10.1097/CORR.0000000000003349. 4. A systematic review and meta-analysis with best-worst case analysis found statistically NON-significant evidence that PRP with or without physical therapy reduced mean time to return to play or reinjury rates for hamstring injuries compared with no treatment or physical therapy alone, in short-term follow-up. Complication rates (postinjection discomfort, pain or sciatic nerve irritation) averaged 5.2% +/- 2.9%. The pooled picture does not support the single positive trial. Seow D, Shimozono Y, Tengku Yusof TNB, et al. — [Platelet-Rich Plasma Injection for the Treatment of Hamstring Injuries: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis With Best-Worst Case Analysis](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32427520/). *American Journal of Sports Medicine*, 2021. DOI: 10.1177/0363546520916729. 5. The Cochrane review of platelet-rich therapies for musculoskeletal soft-tissue injuries concluded there is currently insufficient evidence to support the use of platelet-rich therapy for treating musculoskeletal soft tissue injuries, overall and for individual conditions - including pooled data from six trials of PRP applied during rotator cuff repair surgery, which showed no statistically or clinically significant long-term functional difference. The review ended with an explicit call for standardisation of PRP preparation methods. Moraes VY, Lenza M, Tamaoki MJ, et al. — [Platelet-rich therapies for musculoskeletal soft tissue injuries](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24782334/). *Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews*, 2014. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD010071.pub3. 6. The 2019 ACR/Arthritis Foundation osteoarthritis guideline makes STRONG recommendations for exercise, weight loss in people with overweight or obesity, self-management programmes, tai chi, cane use, tibiofemoral bracing, topical and oral NSAIDs and intra-articular glucocorticoid injections for knee OA. Its conditional recommendations cover balance exercises, yoga, CBT, acupuncture, thermal modalities, radiofrequency ablation, acetaminophen, duloxetine and tramadol. Anything offered before a course of the strongly recommended options is being offered out of order. Kolasinski SL, Neogi T, Hochberg MC, et al. — [2019 American College of Rheumatology/Arthritis Foundation Guideline for the Management of Osteoarthritis of the Hand, Hip, and Knee](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31908163/). *Arthritis & Rheumatology*, 2020. DOI: 10.1002/art.41142. 7. A systematic review and meta-analysis in the BMJ concluded that strong conclusive evidence indicates viscosupplementation (hyaluronic acid) leads to only a small reduction in knee osteoarthritis pain compared with placebo - less than the minimal clinically important between-group difference - and that based on 15 large placebo-controlled trials in 6462 participants it is associated with a statistically significant higher risk of serious adverse events (relative risk 1.49; 95% CI 1.12-1.98). The findings do not support broad use of viscosupplementation. Pereira TV, Juni P, Saadat P, et al. — [Viscosupplementation for knee osteoarthritis: systematic review and meta-analysis](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36333100/). *BMJ*, 2022. DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2022-069722. 8. In a 2-year double-blind randomized trial, intra-articular triamcinolone every 12 weeks produced significantly greater cartilage volume loss than saline (mean change in index compartment cartilage thickness -0.21 mm versus -0.10 mm; between-group difference -0.11 mm; 95% CI -0.20 to -0.03) and no significant difference in knee pain (-1.2 versus -1.9). The authors concluded the findings do not support this treatment for symptomatic knee osteoarthritis - which is the honest reason a patient may want an alternative to repeat steroid shots. McAlindon TE, LaValley MP, Harvey WF, et al. — [Effect of Intra-articular Triamcinolone vs Saline on Knee Cartilage Volume and Pain in Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Clinical Trial](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28510679/). *JAMA*, 2017. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2017.5283. 9. The ESSKA-ICRS consensus applied the RAND/UCLA appropriateness method to 216 clinical scenarios for intra-articular PRP in knee OA. Only 84 scenarios (38.9%) were rated appropriate, 9 (4.2%) inappropriate and 123 (56.9%) uncertain. PRP was judged appropriate in patients aged 80 or under with KL grade 0-III osteoarthritis AFTER failed conservative non-injective or injective treatment; it was NOT considered appropriate as a first treatment, nor in KL grade IV (bone-on-bone) osteoarthritis, where 91.7% and 87.5% of scenarios respectively were uncertain. Kon E, de Girolamo L, Laver L, et al. — [Platelet-rich plasma injections for the management of knee osteoarthritis: The ESSKA-ICRS consensus. Recommendations using the RAND/UCLA appropriateness method for different clinical scenarios](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38961773/). *Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy*, 2024. DOI: 10.1002/ksa.12320. 10. A Bayesian network meta-analysis restricted to LARGE randomized trials (at least 100 patients per group; 57 trials, 22,795 participants, 18 intra-articular interventions) found treatment effects were larger in the 35 high-risk-of-bias trials than in the 22 low/unclear-risk trials. Excluding high-risk trials, the effects of 16 of the 18 intra-articular interventions in knee or hip OA were smaller than the minimal clinically important difference and most were consistent with placebo effects; triamcinolone had the highest probability of exceeding the MID at weeks 2-6. Pereira TV, Saadat P, Bobos P, et al. — [Effectiveness and safety of intra-articular interventions for knee and hip osteoarthritis based on large randomized trials: A systematic review and network meta-analysis](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39265924/). *Osteoarthritis and Cartilage*, 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.joca.2024.08.014. ## What to bring when you’re ready to talk Bring your questions, medicines, and any recent joint report. You won’t need to choose care before someone examines the sore area. QC Kinetix can discuss regenerative treatments, meaning care without surgery using platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, the concentrated platelet layer separated from your blood. Call (602) 837-PAIN for the Chandler or Scottsdale clinic. Talk to the clinic team: --- A comfortable place to start. Plain answers about aching joints in Mesa, simple relief, urgent symptoms, platelet-rich plasma called PRP, costs, coverage, and nearby QC Kinetix care. A plain Mesa guide to aching joints, simple relief, urgent symptoms, and PRP choices. This site is operated by the owners of the QC Kinetix Phoenix-area clinics, who benefit when a reader books with those clinics. Copyright 2026 Mesa PRP Signal. General health education, not medical advice for an individual joint or tendon.