Do you have a tendon injury that stubbornly refuses to heal? Are you unable to put stress on your joint without experiencing pain? The reason damaged tendons, cartilages, and ligaments heal slowly is that they have limited blood supply and do not get enough nourishment or stimulus to re-grow after injury as compared to other tissues of the body.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections provide the stimulus for regrowth that could allow chronic musculoskeletal injuries to heal better and faster. The concentrated blood platelets contain growth factors that improve your body’s natural ability to heal itself and stimulate multi-potent cells in the injured area to form new tendon, cartilage, or ligaments as required.
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PRP can be used for treatment of chronic injuries such as epicondylitis as well as rotator cuff, patellar, and calcaneal tendinopathy. Intraarticular osteoarthritis pain and stiffness which affects the hip, knee, shoulder, and other joints may be treated with ultrasound-guided intraarticular injections of PRP.
Studies have shown PRP injections to be more effective in relieving symptoms of osteoarthritis over a longer period when compared to intraarticular injections of hyaluronic acid and other viscoelastic injections.
Other factors in favor of PRP are:
- Ease of preparation as the entire procedure takes no more than 30 minutes.
- Low cost as compared to surgical repair.
- Minimal invasiveness as no incisions are made.
- Minimal associated side effects as PRP is derived from your own blood.
You may be a candidate for PRP injections if:
- You have tendon pain that affects your activities of daily living.
- Physical therapy has not helped to reduce pain or improve joint function.
- Medications aren’t providing adequate pain relief and you’d like to avoid long-term medication use.
- You would like to avoid surgery if possible.
To find out more about how you may benefit from PRP injections, do contact us or an orthopedic doctor with a high success rate in administering this innovative form of treatment.
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