PRP Therapy Specialist

What is platelet-rich plasma (PRP)?

Blood is mostly liquid (plasma), but it can have other things in it, like red and white blood cells and platelets. Platelets help your blood to clot if you have an injury, but they also contain growth factors - proteins that are vital for tissue repair.

PRP is plasma that has a high concentration of platelets, from five to 10 times more than blood. To get this high concentration of platelets, your provider at New Braunfels Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine needs to take a sample of your blood. Then they use a centrifuge to concentrate the platelets.

How does PRP work?

Studies into how PRP works are ongoing, but research so far shows that PRP can increase the speed of healing.

Your provider at New Braunfels Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine injects PRP into your injured tissues. The injection might also have a local anesthetic in it. The PRP goes into the inflamed tissues, where it gives a boost to your natural healing processes.

PRP can also be helpful when used during orthopaedic surgery. In this case, the team prepares the PRP in a way that enables the surgeon to place it into your injured tissues.

What conditions can PRP therapy treat?

There are several types of musculoskeletal injuries that show promising results in PRP therapy research studies. These include:

Chronic tendon injuries

PRP seems to be effective in treating these types of injuries, which includes tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis). PRP could also be helpful in treating other types of chronic tendon injuries like Achilles tendinitis and jumper's knee (patellar tendinitis).

Acute ligament and muscle injuries

There’s less clinical evidence to prove the effectiveness of PRP in treating sprained ligaments, pulled muscles, and other acute sports injuries. However, reports from people who have had PRP therapy are very positive.

PRP therapy has become a favorite treatment of many top athletes. Professional athletes from numerous different disciplines use PRP to treat injuries like pulled hamstring muscles and sprained knees.

Arthritis

Arthritis causes degeneration of the protective cartilage in your joints. The result is chronic, incurable joint pain. PRP therapy could help decrease the symptoms associated with arthritis. PRP injections do not, however, cure arthritis. 

PRP may also be effective in treating knee, hip, shoulder, and spine conditions that cause pain or mobility issues.

One of the major advantages of using PRP is that it presents minimal risks. PRP is a natural substance, and as it comes from your blood, there’s very little chance of any adverse reaction.

If you’d like to know more about PRP and see whether it could help you, call New Braunfels Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine today or book an appointment online.