How PRP Can Help a Sports Injury

The damage caused by a sports injury extends beyond the wound and your pain. Sports injuries force you to sit on the sidelines and put your future on hold as you wait to see how quickly and well you heal.

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections pave the way forward and improve long-term results by accelerating healing, relieving pain, and helping you regain optimal strength. PRP is also a safe, low-risk procedure that seldom causes side effects.

If you’re interested in PRP, the most crucial step is meeting with a physician who specializes in regenerative medicine. That’s what you’ll find at Alliance Spine and Pain Centers.

Our expertise ensures your PRP injections are tailored to meet your needs and included in a comprehensive treatment plan supporting your recovery. You can begin your journey by learning how PRP heals sports injuries.

PRP accelerates healing

PRP is an advanced regenerative medicine treatment containing concentrated platelets, the cells you need to heal from sports injuries.

Platelets are live cells naturally found in your blood. When any part of your body is injured, platelets migrate to the damaged tissues and release proteins called growth factors.

Growth factors activate and accelerate healing by:

• Regulating inflammation
• Stimulating new blood vessel growth
• Promoting new cell growth
• Enhancing collagen synthesis
• Supporting stem cell activity

Your body’s stem cells can divide and produce new cells that develop into the tissues needed for healing, such as muscles, ligaments, tendons, and cartilage.

We produce PRP in the office by taking a sample of your blood and processing it to concentrate the platelets. After mixing the platelets with plasma (the liquid part of your blood), we inject the live cells, which release healing growth factors.

Sports injuries treated with PRP

A PRP injection can treat most sports injuries. The boost of platelets is especially beneficial for severe injuries and injured tissues with a poor blood supply.

These are a few examples of the sports injuries we often treat with PRP:

• Jumper’s knee (patellar tendonitis)
• Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis)
• Rotator cuff tears
• Plantar fasciitis
• Achilles tendon injuries
• Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries
• Meniscus injuries
• Pulled or torn muscles
• Inflamed tendons, ligaments, and muscles

No matter the injury, PRP injections can significantly relieve pain and help you recover faster.

Benefits of PRP injections

The most essential benefit is faster healing and pain relief, but that’s not the only advantage gained from PRP injections. Here are three more:

Achieve long-lasting pain relief

PRP eases your pain by regulating inflammation. It supports the inflammation essential for healing and prevents damage by reducing inflammation when it’s no longer needed. 

More importantly, your pain relief lasts because PRP does what other treatments can’t: It actively heals the injury.

Regain optimal strength and function

PRP can help you regain optimal strength and reduce your re-injury risk by limiting scar tissue. When tendons, ligaments, and muscles heal too slowly, they develop more scar tissue.

Scar tissue is weaker and doesn't have the same elasticity as the original tendon, ligament, or muscle. As a result, you don't regain optimal function, and you're more vulnerable to future injuries.

Prevent surgery

You can often avoid surgery if you promote maximum healing with PRP.

Ready to learn if you’re a good candidate for PRP?

You may be a good candidate for PRP whether your sports injury just occurred, it’s taking too long to heal, or it has turned into a chronic problem.

Our Alliance Spine and Pain Centers team specializes in evaluating your injury, determining if PRP can help, and creating a personalized treatment plan that gets you back in the game. Call the nearest office or book online today to start your healing journey.