Over the last few years, PRP (platelet-rich plasma) therapy has become popular to treat chronic tendinitis or arthritis. In our clinic, we have been providing PRP therapy since 2009 and successfully treated many patients including professional athletes.
Mechanism of PRP therapy
PRP (=Platelet Rich Plasma) is concentrated with platelets and contains lots of nutrient factors that facilitate the growth of new tissues or cells. During this procedure, first we draw blood from your arm, and then spin the blood in the special centrifuge and extract PRP. After local anesthesia injection, PRP will be injected to the treatment area. During the injection of PRP, Dr. purposely pokes several tiny holes with the needle to create “new injuries”. This “new injuries” bring the chronically injured area back to the acute inflammatory stage. Inflammation is the first and one of the most important steps for the repair process of the cells. During this inflammatory stage, nutrient-rich PRP facilitates to re-build the new tissues over the injured tendon or ligament.
PRP therapy is approved by FDA and recommended treatment for chronic injuries, such as Achilles Tendinitis, Plantar Fasciitis and Tennis Elbow, which didn’t heal properly after 6 months of Physical Therapy.
Benefits of PRP therapy
PRP therapy is in-office procedure and you don’t need to go to the surgery center to receive this treatment. Treatment time is relatively short, approximately 45 min to 1 hour.
In the past studies, it is reported that 80-85% of chronic pain is alleviated. Some patients reported that the pain has completely disappeared after PRP therapy. The effect lasts long and the recurrence rate is very low. Recovery time with PRP therapy is much quicker than the surgery. Typically, open surgery requires at least 6-9 months until full recovery, while post PRP patient can start light exercise and stretching in 3-4 weeks and recover to pre-procedure activity level in 6-9 weeks.
Furthermore, since PRP is produced from your own blood, the side effects are very limited. Therefore, PRP therapy would be a great treatment option for patients who may have risk to open surgery, such as people with Diabetes and heart disease, and elderly.
After Procedure
Since PRP therapy facilitates the natural healing by causing acute inflammation, you should not take any anti-inflammatory agents, such as aspirin or ibuprofen that suppress inflammation. PRP therapy has completely opposite principle from the conventional chronic pain treatment, like steroid injection.
