PRP vs. Cortisone Injections: What's the Difference?
PRP and cortisone injections work in fundamentally different ways. Cortisone is designed to temporarily reduce inflammation and relieve pain, while platelet-rich plasma (PRP) uses concentrated platelets and growth factors from your own blood to support the body's natural healing response.
Both treatments are commonly used for orthopedic and sports medicine conditions, but the right choice depends on your diagnosis, arthritis severity, activity level, and long-term goals.
At IOSD, treatment recommendations are individualized and based on the latest available evidence—not simply the most commonly performed injection.
How Do PRP and Cortisone Injections Compare?
What is the treatment goal of PRP vs. cortisone?
PRP: Supports the body's natural healing response by delivering concentrated platelets and growth factors directly to the injured tissue.
Cortisone: Primarily reduces inflammation and can provide temporary symptom relief.
How long do the benefits of PRP vs. cortisone last?
PRP: Improvement typically develops gradually over several weeks to months. Depending on the condition being treated and the individual patient, benefits may be longer-lasting than those seen with corticosteroid injections.
Cortisone: Pain relief often begins more quickly, but the effect is typically temporary and may diminish over time.
How do PRP and cortisone affect joint health?
PRP: Randomized trials and systematic reviews support PRP as a treatment option for appropriately selected patients with knee osteoarthritis, with studies reporting improvements in pain and function compared with corticosteroid injections.
Cortisone: Corticosteroid injections can provide meaningful short-term symptom relief. However, research has raised concerns about repeated corticosteroid exposure. A randomized clinical trial found greater cartilage loss with repeated triamcinolone injections compared with saline injections over two years. Observational research has also reported an association between corticosteroid injections and progression to knee replacement.
What is recovery like after PRP vs. cortisone?
PRP: Temporary soreness after treatment is common. Improvement generally occurs gradually over the following weeks to months.
Cortisone: There is typically little downtime, and symptom relief may begin within several days. Cortisone primarily addresses inflammation and symptoms rather than directly stimulating a tissue-healing response.
Clinical Evidence
PRP vs. Corticosteroid for Knee Osteoarthritis
Systematic review and meta-analysis — McLarnon & Heron, 2021
Repeated Corticosteroid Injections and Cartilage Loss
Randomized clinical trial — McAlindon et al., JAMA, 2017
Corticosteroid Injections and Knee Arthroplasty
Observational study — Wijn et al., Bone & Joint Journal, 2020