If you have chronic musculoskeletal pain or a joint injury, your sports medicine doctor may have recommended platelet-rich-plasma (PRP) therapy for you. Professional athletes were among the very first patients who received PRP therapy for their sports injuries, and some have credited this therapy for their speedy healing process and early return to their sport.
The benefits and effectiveness of PRP therapy are still being studied, but many orthopedic practices already offer this option to their patients. Let’s talk about how PRP works and whether it might be right for you.
How PRP Therapy Heals Orthopedic Injuries
The science behind PRP therapy is this: When you incur an injury, your body sends platelets to the site of injury to facilitate the healing process. What scientists are trying to do is to harness your body’s natural healing ability and boost it.
PRP therapy makes use of the clotting component found in your blood – the platelet. However, platelets are not just for clotting per se. They also contain growth factors that are essential for the healing of injuries and the regrowth of the damaged area.
How Would It Work for Me?
If you decide to try PRP therapy, your doctor will harvest some of the platelets in your blood by taking a sample of your blood. The physician will then separate them from the other blood cells by concentrating them via a centrifuge.
Afterward, the highly concentrated preparation of platelets is carefully injected into the site of injury or pain. Laboratory studies show that this therapy helps to speed up the healing process of the patient.
Conditions Treated by PRP Therapy
Musculoskeletal injuries that have been reported to respond well to PRP therapy include:
- Tendon tears
- Muscle injuries
- Ligament injuries
- Achilles tendonitis
- Jumper’s knee
- Muscle strains
- Bursitis
And since PRP therapy can help to speed up the healing process, it is also recommended to patients who undergo surgery to address orthopedic conditions. PRP can help make the patient’s recovery time faster and more efficient.
Benefits of PRP Therapy
One key benefit of PRP therapy is that it helps with pain relief. In fact, it has helped patients ease their reliance on prescription painkillers or anti-inflammatories, which means PRP therapy can also be used in pain management therapies.
In addition, PRP therapy can also help delay or eliminate the need for joint-replacement surgery. If the injury is healed or the pain is greatly reduced, surgery is usually no longer necessary.
Is PRP Therapy Right for You?
PRP therapy falls under the category of regenerative medicine, which is helping the body to regenerate itself and repair itself naturally. If it is recommended and administered by a skilled physician, PRP may be beneficial to you. The risks associated with PRP therapy are minimal, and the benefits will depend on your overall health and your specific orthopedic condition.
To find out whether you are a good candidate for the revolutionary treatment of PRP therapy, call our team at the Orthopaedic Associates of Central Maryland today at (410) 644-1880 or (855) 4MD-BONE (463-2663). You can also request a consultation with our PRP experts now. We are pleased to offer you regenerative treatment methods to help speed up the healing of your injury and restore function and mobility to your joints.
