PRP Therapy: Plasma from You to You
Platelet-rich Plasma (PRP) is a healing liquid that has been proven to speed up recovery from injuries. It has made 21st Century news headlines because PRP Therapy has benefitted professional athletes like Tiger Woods, Alex Rodriguez and the late Kobe Bryant, allowing them to get back on track in their respective sports.
We’ve been hearing a lot more about the powers of plasma, the integral part of blood that allows the movement of red and white blood cells and platelets through the bloodstream, during the year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
PRP Therapy is becoming increasingly popular in treating sports injuries and in the healing of postsurgical wounds, but it is a different concept than using antitoxins in the plasma of one person to repel a disease in another. It is literally a case of your body healing itself, because the plasma is separated from your own blood to collect miniscule plate-shaped cells aptly named platelets. Thus enriched it is injected back into affected areas in your body.
Taking Healing Power to Another Level
Before the advent of platelets as a healing force of great potential in the field of Regenerative Medicine, they were best known for their clotting power, stemming the flow of blood from wounds and sores and saving us from bleeding to death from the most minor of injuries.
The healing power of platelets is taken to another healing level in platelet-rich plasma, enabling doctors to use PRP therapy to heal injuries or resurrect damaged ligaments, tendons, muscles, joints and even skin. In the event of an injured muscle, for example, the enriched plasma would be injected into strategic locations of that muscle.
At Montvale Health Sport + Spine, Medical Director Dr. Rick Lambert, MD includes PRP Therapy among their specialties.
Injecting PRP into damaged tissues promotes healing by stimulating the growth of new, healthy cells in your body.
Studies and observational data indicate PRP is effective in treating:
- Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis)
- Knee pain
- Sports injuries such as pulled muscles, joint sprains or ligament tears
- Wounds
- Tendon injuries including Achilles tendonitis, tennis elbow, patellar tendon pain
- Acute injuries such as sprained knees and pulled hamstrings
- Postsurgical repair
- Osteoarthritis (degenerative joint disease)
Most devices used in making PRP are cleared by the Food and Drug Administration. PRP treatments, however, are not subject to FDA approval. They use the person’s own blood and are not regarded as “drugs.”
