How you can use PRP injections in orthopedic surgery Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Injections
In recent years, doctors have learned that the body has the ability to heal itself. Platelet-rich plasma therapy is a treatment method that can harness those abilities and amplify the natural growth factors your body uses to heal tissue.
What is platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and what are PRP injections?
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy uses injections of a concentration of a patient’s own platelets to accelerate the healing of injured tendons, ligaments, muscles and joints. In this way, PRP injections use each individual patient’s own healing system to improve musculoskeletal problems.
PRP injections are prepared by taking anywhere from one to a few tubes of your own blood and running it through a centrifuge to concentrate the platelets. These activated platelets are then injected directly into your injured or diseased body tissue. This releases growth factors that stimulate and increase the number of reparative cells your body produces.
Ultrasound imaging is sometimes used to guide the injection. The photographs below illustrate a PRP injection into a patient’s torn tendon. The ultrasound guidance is shown at left and the injection is shown at right.
Chronic Tendon Injuries
According to the research studies currently reported, PRP is most effective in the treatment of chronic tendon injuries, especially tennis elbow, a very common injury of the tendons on the outside of the elbow.
The use of PRP for other chronic tendon injuries — such as chronic Achilles tendonitis or inflammation of the patellar tendon at the knee (jumper’s knee) is promising. However, it is difficult to say at this time that PRP therapy is any more effective than traditional treatment of these problems.
Arthritis
Platelet-Rich Plasma is huge in arthritis. Earlier this year, researchers from Shanghai, China published a review of the 14 existing randomized controlled trials related to PRP treatment of knee-OA that comprised a total of 1423 participants. And they concluded that Platelet-Rich Plasma could be more efficacious than HA, ozone, and corticosteroids in terms of pain relief and functional improvement at 3, 6 and 12 months follow-up. This justifies why some physicians are confident enough to use PRP injections as first-line treatments for all osteoarthritis cases.
Treatment with PRP could hold promise, however, current research studies to back up the claims in the media are lacking. Although PRP does appear to be effective in the treatment of chronic tendon injuries about the elbow, the medical community needs more scientific evidence before it can determine whether PRP therapy is truly effective in other conditions.
Even though the success of PRP therapy is still questionable, the risks associated with it are minimal: There may be increased pain at the injection site, but the incidence of other problems — infection, tissue damage, nerve injuries — appears to be no different from that associated with cortisone injections.
Orthopedic Corner | Leon Mead MD Orthopedic Doctor | 730 Goodlette Road North, Suite 201 Naples Florida 34102 | Phone: (239) 262-1119