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How Does Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy Work?

How Does Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy Work?

Perhaps you read an article about platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy or a friend has recounted their own successful experience with this regenerative therapy. Either way, you’re intrigued and you want to learn more.

To help shed some light, our team at Valiant Life Medical pulled together this primer on PRP therapy and how we use this form of regenerative medicine to help our patients recover from musculoskeletal issues of all kinds.

The power of platelets

To fully understand PRP therapy, let’s go back to the original role your platelets play in your body.

Your blood contains three different types of cells:

  1. Red blood cells
  2. White blood cells
  3. Platelets

The primary responsibility of your platelets is to quickly plug any holes in your blood vessels to prevent you from bleeding too much.

For example, when you cut yourself, your platelets jump into action and flood the area. The first platelets to arrive attach themselves to the injury site. As more platelets arrive, they connect with the first responders to form a clot. The final wave of platelets build up to plug the breech in your blood vessel.

To help in the final coagulation stage, a protein called fibrin joins the platelets, which reinforces the clot (and creates a scab).

As you can see, platelets are critical for healing and provide the first steps when you have an injury.

What medical researchers have discovered is that once your platelets stop the bleeding they also release critical growth factors and cytokines to initiate the long-term healing process. This discovery is what has led to the use of PRP therapy to help people heal better from musculoskeletal damage.

PRP therapy for healing

With PRP therapy, we create a concentrate of your own platelets and then inject it into your damaged tissue to accelerate and amplify healing. Since we use your own platelets, your body readily accepts the resources and reacts accordingly.

To give you an idea of the many applications of PRP therapy, the current body of research indicates the therapy is effective in treating knee osteoarthritis, tennis elbow, and plantar fasciitis.

At our practice, we treat the problems we mention above with PRP therapy, as well as many more, including:

PRP also helps expedite healing after surgery.

The treatments themselves are quick and easy, and most of our patients realize gradual results as the PRP initiates the healing call and your body responds. You may need a series of PRP injections for best results, but this depends on the extent of the problem we’re addressing.

If you’d like to explore whether PRP therapy is right for you, please contact our office in Fort Worth, Texas, to set up an appointment.

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