Healing injuries with platelet rich plasma therapy (PRP therapy)

10 Nov Healing injuries with platelet rich plasma therapy (PRP therapy)

Used to trigger healing inside the body, PRP is a medicinal substance made from the patient’s blood. Conditions that previously been treated with medical intervention, physical therapies, or surgical intervention over the past several years for athletes now have a new therapeutic treatment with PRP therapy, known also as platelet rich plasma.

What is platelet rich plasma?

The solid components in blood that are mainly known for their importance in clotting ability are the red and white cells combined with platelets. Platelets are vital for the healing function by containing proteins called growth factors. When plasma is concentrated the levels of growth factor increases in richness by 5 to 10 times -this is platelet rich plasma, or PRP.

How do they make the plasma so rich with platelets?

A patient has their blood drawn when the stem cell doctor calls for a PRP preparation. Using a centrifuge, platelets are separated from all other blood components to increase their concentration in numbers. This concentration approaches 94% platelets in the plasma, raised from an average of 6% in normal blood. This process typically takes no longer than 15 minutes, and is then readily available for use in the treatment of that patient.

How does PRP work?

Injecting Platelet-Rich Plasma into an area produces an inflammatory response from the body, and the resulting rush of white blood cells to the injection site also helps the healing process. The increased number of growth factors in the concentrated PRP potentially can speed up healing with injuries or post-op surgery in two ways:

• The Los Angeles stem cell doctor may opt to apply the PRP preparation directly to the torn tissues after a surgery to repair an injury or tear, such as a sports injury.
• The stem cell clinic doctor may choose to directly inject platelet rich plasma into the injured area to reduce swelling, inflammation, and symptoms of pain. This could be a long process over several weeks to reap the full benefits of the PRP concentration.

What conditions can be treated with platelet rich plasma?

Several factors come into play that can influence the overall effectiveness of a PRP treatment. The patient’s overall health, the severity of the injury, and the area of the body treatment can have effects on the healing and recovery time. PRP has been the most effective in the treatment of chronic tendon injuries and tears.  Current studies are being conducted using PRP in the areas of:

• Acute ligament and muscle tears and injuries
• orthopedic surgery
• arthritis of the knee
• stress or compound fractures

Are there any side effects of PRP?

One of the main benefits of injecting PRP into the body is to stimulate the healing process. There is no chance of infection, as the blood used is the patient’s. This circumvents the risk of rejection, and eliminates the potential of the patient contracting a blood-borne pathogen.

It is a blending of the body’s natural healing abilities with cutting-edge technology to give the patient a more rapid recovery. PRP therapy can sometimes remove the need for long-term treatment, and provides a very rapid recovery after injection.

The stem cell doctors at TeleHealth offer PRP therapy along with bone marrow and fat derived stem cell injections, often covered by insurance. Call (888) 885-8675 for more information and scheduling today!