Modern medicine often resorts to conventional medications and surgery for the management of pain, disease, and injuries. But more recently, doctors are utilizing the properties in your own body to heal damaged and diseased tissue, and one of these methods is platelet-rich plasma (PRP). At Quantum Pain & Sports Medicine in Irving, Texas, double board-certified Interventional Pain Management Physician Trung Ha, MD, offers PRP as a type of regenerative pain management treatment option that not only alleviates your discomfort but may facilitate regeneration and healing of the underlying condition altogether.
What is platelet-rich plasma (PRP)?
PRP is an innovative treatment that uses the healing properties from your own body to repair any injured or diseased tissue. PRP is a form of regenerative medicine that can be extracted from a sample of your own blood.
Your blood is made up of plasma (liquid) and proteins, including red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. You may or may not already know that the platelets in your blood are responsible for forming clots to stop bleeding, but they also contain other important properties, including growth factors and specialized proteins that support healing and the regeneration of new tissue.
To begin your PRP treatment, a sample of blood is drawn from your arm and spun in a centrifuge to separate the platelets from all the other properties in your blood. The platelets are then injected back into your diseased or damaged tissue at a concentrated solution to help accelerate the healing process and repair tissue damage to improve function and reduce pain.
What conditions benefit from PRP?
Conditions that affect your musculoskeletal system, which includes your muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and bone, would benefit from PRP therapy.
You may want to talk to the team at Quantum Pain & Sports Medicine about PRP if you are suffering from:
- Sports injury
- Tendinopathy
- Tendinitis
- Rotator cuff tear
- Shoulder pain
- Knee pain
- Knee osteoarthritis
- Knee sprain
- Tennis elbow
- Achilles tendonitis
PRP may also accelerate healing after a surgical procedure.
What can I expect during PRP therapy?
Your provider will perform your PRP treatment at the office. They begin by first drawing a sample of blood from your arm to create your PRP. They may then inject a local anesthetic to reduce discomfort at the area where they plan to inject your PRP.
The PRP solution is then injected back into your diseased or damaged tissue after isolation of healing proteins and growth factors. While treatment time varies from case to case, PRP treatment typically takes about an hour.
Depending on the site of the injection and your overall health, the team at Quantum Pain & Sports Medicine may recommend activity modifications following your PRP injection. However, downtime is usually not necessary. You may notice swelling and inflammation at the site of your injection following the procedure, but this is expected and an indication that the PRP is working.
While results vary, you may begin to notice a reduction in pain and an improvement in function just a few weeks after your injection. Your provider may recommend a series of PRP injections to get maximum benefits.
To learn more about platelet-rich plasma and how it may benefit your pain condition, call Quantum Pain & Sports Medicine or request an appointment online today.