PRP Injections
Why are PRP Injections Beneficial?
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy uses injections of a concentration of a patient’s own platelets to accelerate the healing of injured tendons, ligaments, muscles and joints. In this way, PRP injections use each individual patient’s own healing system to improve musculoskeletal problems.
PRP injections are prepared by taking anywhere from one to a few tubes of your own blood and running it through a centrifuge to concentrate the platelets. These activated platelets are then injected directly into your injured or diseased body tissue. This releases growth factors that stimulate and increase the number of reparative cells your body produces.
Platelet-rich plasma has been found to significantly enhance the healing process. PRP has also been demonstrated to improve function and reduce pain in people who have tendonitis or chronic tendinosis conditions such as tennis elbow or golfer’s elbow.
Some of the key advantages of PRP injections are that they can reduce the need for anti-inflammatories or stronger medications like opioids. In addition, the side effects of PRP injections are very limited because, since the injections are created from your own blood, your body will not reject or react negatively to them.
What can You Expect from a Treatment?
The first thing that most patients notice after a PRP treatment is an almost immediate 50-80% decrease in pain. This is in part due to the effect of combining PRP with Prolozone injection or pretreating the injection area with a numbing cream or injections like procaine or lidocaine.
Next, chronic areas of degeneration such as in osteoarthritic knees, hips, and ankles may have significant reduction of pain and even may regenerate. Although more research is needed to fully document this effect, some physicians have already taken pre and post treatment x-rays that have shown an increase in cartilage thickness in knees treated with PRP. And fortunately, other than a rarely occurring and temporary increase in pain in the area injected, no significant side effects from PRP have ever been demonstrated. Other than the possibility of an allergy to one of the liquid components, there are no contraindications to its use.
Conditions that Respond to PRP Injection Therapy:
The primary criterion for selecting a patient for PRP is pain or injury. If it hurts, PRP should be tried.
The following is a list of conditions that have been found to be very responsive to PRP: chronic neck and back pain from any cause, rotator cuff injuries, degenerative and arthritic hips, knees, and ankles, degenerated discs, plantar fasciitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, TMJ, sciatica, heel spurs, neuromas, tennis elbow, painful scars, and sports injuries—basically anything that hurts.
We often combine PRP with Prolozone, Stem Cell, Exosome and Peptides for a supercharged healing cocktail that can be used for most inflammatory and degenerative conditions of the body. From injury to hair restoration PRP is an excellent single or stackable therapy.