GTN (Glyceral Trinitrate) is a drug you are likely to be more familiar with in the context of angina rather than tendinopathy however there is a topical ointment which as some evidence suggests may aid tendon healing. This concept has been around for some 20 years and there has just been a new systematic review published on the topic.
Don’t go rubbing topical GTN into your patients tendons just yet. There is still a lack of large scale well designed RCTs to provide conclusive evidence for the use of GTN for tendinopathy. However, based on this systematic review there is good evidence for the use in short- and medium-term for the treatment of tendinopathies which fail to respond to loading programmes.
Make sure you read the full systematic review for all of the details. It’s open access so no excuse!