Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy has been in use by surgeons for decades. More recently, physicians in other specialties have used the therapy in numerous applications to promote healing, hair growth, and even improve skin tone and texture.
At LA Orthopaedic Specialists, our expert team believes that PRP offers a way for patients to enjoy remarkable outcomes with very little risk. Our team suggests PRP in a variety of contexts, from repairing muscle, tendon, or ligament tissues.
Regenerative medicine
PRP is considered regenerative medicine, which means that it’s a method to restore damaged tissues. The demand for this type of intervention is enormous, because it includes damage due to chronic conditions such as arthritis, traumatic injuries, overuse injuries, and many others.
Further, because PRP therapy involves using your own blood, there’s little chance that you’ll have any sort of negative reaction. When you have PRP therapy, our staff first draws a small amount of your blood and then processes it in a centrifuge. This separates the various components, such as the red blood cells, the white blood cells, the plasma, and the platelets. We then extract the platelets and combine them with a small amount of your plasma to create a concentrated PRP solution. In some instances, our team may mix other substances with your PRP in order to promote a specific response. In others, she injects the PRP precisely into the tissue that needs to be repaired.
PRP and healing
Platelets are cells that have several important purposes. When you get a cut, for example, platelets bind together and create a clot, which stops bleeding. They also contain special proteins called growth factors, which help in healing by triggering the right sort of physical response to damage. In a person who has a condition such as osteoarthritis of the knee, PRP therapy may involve injecting PRP directly into the damaged cartilage of the affected knee. The PRP then recruits cells to help promote cartilage healing through inflammation, proliferation of cells, and remodeling of the tissue.
Why PRP therapy?
You may be wondering why, if you have PRP in your blood already, you need to have it extracted and then injected into the area that needs to heal. There are a couple of reasons. One is that PRP therapy can give you a boost and help speed up healing. When PRP therapy was first used medically, it was often during surgery to repair damaged tendons. In those cases, the surgery was necessary for the damaged tendon to heal properly and the PRP helped speed up the process. Another reason is that PRP therapy allows our team to concentrate on your naturally occurring healing potential and increase its ability to repair and heal damage.
When PRP is an option
As mentioned, PRP can be used in numerous ways to improve your health. Injuries to soft tissues, such as muscles, tendons, or ligaments due to overuse are a common application. People who enjoy a sport like running or golf are frequently vulnerable to overuse injuries, and PRP can be a great option. If you’d like to learn more about PRP and find out if it could be the right solution for you, schedule an appointment with LA Orthopaedic Specialists in Los Angeles, California. We always strive to provide the best approach to your wellness.