Platelet Rich Plasma Injection
Hello again
It has been along time since I posted. We celebrated our first anniversary September 10, 2019. It has been a 365 days of long journey. We have accomplished a lot during this time. We started with one patient on our very first day, and today we have over 700 registered patients. We have treated and discharged many patients with success.
There is a shift in medicine. Patients are looking into more natural supplements, and natural way of healing. There is also a fear using pain medication in the era of opioid crisis. Many patient also want to avoid surgeries and asking for alternative options. Platelet rich plasma (PRP) injection has given hopes to many patents as an alternative treatment option to surgery. Recently we successfully treated many patients with PRP injection who suffered from ACL, MCL, meniscus injuries and rotator cuff tears.
PRP injection is a procedure in which patient’s own platelets injected into the area of injury to accelerate healing of injured tendons, ligaments, joints and muscles.
PRP is not a new procedure, and has been used in athletes with sports injuries for many years. Indeed PRP injection was first developed in 1970s and has been used in different areas of medicine since to achieve healing process. For decades, scientists have been looking for most effective way of extracting growth factors from platelets. Platelets main function is to clot blood after injuries. However platelets also cary growth factors which are known to promote remodeling and healing and repair of aged and damaged tissues. Doctors for years performed techniques and special equipments to isolate and concentrate an individual’s platelets for injection into injuries and other degenerative sites. Platelets concentrated with high amount of growth factors appear to have a role in the treatment of tendon and ligament injuries, as well as arthritis of joints.
PRP procedure is relatively simple procedure and it is usually well tolerated. Blood is drawn from a vein usually one of the large veins from the arm. That blood is put in a special machine called centrifuge and then spinned for approximately 15-20 minutes. This process isolates platelets and blood plasma from other blood components. By spinning the blood in the centrifuge, we obtain plasma which is highly concentrated with platelets. The centrifuge increases the concentration of platelets 3-10 times what they would be in blood alone. Other components of blood are also removed, although sometimes the white blood cells are left within the concentrate to play other roles in healing. This highly concentrated blood plasma then is injected in to the area of injury to help the healing process. At Triangle Pain Consultants, we perform the injection with image guidance to increase safety and accuracy and effectiveness.