Conditions That Can Be Helped With PRP

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) eases pain, accelerates healing, and supports your return to activities with optimal strength and energy. Because of the way it works, PRP improves many conditions and may help you avoid surgery. 

Our Alliance Spine and Pain Centers team specializes in PRP injections. You can rely on our extensive experience to determine if you’re a good candidate for PRP. You can also depend on the quality of care you’ll receive.

We perform your PRP treatment in our advanced facility, which is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).

How PRP heals

Platelets and stem cells are the two essential healing cells in your body. Other cells, like white blood cells and fibroblasts, also have vital roles in healing, but they come from stem cells.

Stem cells continuously self-replicate to produce new cells. The new cells develop into all the cells needed to repair and regenerate damaged tissues.

Platelets activate the healing process. These cells circulate in your bloodstream and quickly travel to injured tissues. After reaching the injury, platelets release proteins called growth factors.

There are many growth factors, each triggering a healing activity. Growth factors can:

• Accelerate healing
• Regulate inflammation
• Stimulate the synthesis of new blood vessels
• Give instructions to other healing cells, putting them into action
• Regulate the development of new cells
• Create a matrix to support new tissue growth
• Attract mesenchymal stem cells to the area to regenerate muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bone, and skin.

Regulating inflammation has a significant impact on healing. Injuries need inflammation to support healing, but only in the early stage. Then, inflammation must decrease. If it lasts too long, it interferes with healing.

Injuries that improve with PRP

The roles of PRP listed above make this treatment especially beneficial for certain types of injuries. Severe wounds can overwhelm your body’s ability to send enough platelets to the area. PRP provides the boost of platelets needed to heal.

Without healthy circulation, platelets can’t reach the wound. As a result, PRP can promote healing when your injury is in tissues with a limited blood supply.

Low blood levels may occur due to damaged blood vessels. However, some tissues naturally have a poor blood supply. Here are two examples:

Cartilage

The cartilage on the ends of bones inside joints (articular cartilage) has a poor blood supply. Once injured, articular cartilage has limited healing ability because it doesn’t get the oxygen, nutrients, and platelets that blood provides.

The meniscus is a type of fibrocartilage in the knee joint. The outer third of the meniscus receives blood, but the inner two-thirds don’t. PRP injections targeting this white zone can promote healing and help you avoid surgery.

Tendons and ligaments

Tendons are poorly vascularized, depriving them of the blood needed to heal properly. The blood supply to ligaments varies.

Some ligaments, and even different areas in the same ligament, have a varying supply. PRP can supply healing cells to areas lacking blood.

Conditions helped by PRP

PRP has the potential to improve inflammatory and degenerative diseases and musculoskeletal injuries. Orthopedic surgeons have long used PRP during surgery. They apply it to the surgical site before closing the incision.

This is a partial list of conditions that may benefit from PRP injections:

• Chronic pain
• Osteoarthritis
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Meniscus tears
• Ligament and tendon tears
• Tendonitis
• Herniated discs
• Degenerative disc disease
• Jumper’s knee (patellar tendonitis)
• Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis)
• Rotator cuff tears
• Plantar fasciitis
• Achilles tendon injuries
• Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears

PRP injections contain your platelets because we produce it from a sample of your blood. That means the treatment is safe and won’t cause adverse reactions.

Can your condition improve with PRP?

Scheduling an evaluation is the only way to learn if PRP is a good treatment option for you. Call Alliance Spine and Pain Centers or use online booking to schedule an appointment with our regenerative medicine specialists.