Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy uses injections of a concentration of the patient's own platelets to accelerate healing of injured tendons, ligaments, muscles, and joints. In this way, PRP injections use each patient's own healing system to improve musculoskeletal problems. PRP injections are used to treat tendon tears, tendinitis, muscle injuries, arthritis-related pain, and joint injuries. They are also becoming more common for cosmetic procedures.
For example, dermatologists and hair replacement experts use PRP injections to treat a type of hair loss called androgenic alopecia, also known as male or female pattern baldness, which affects both men and women. And some dermatologists offer PRP treatments for the face. You may have heard this called a “vampire facial”. PRP injections are used to treat a wide range of ailments, including pain and injury.
PRP can even be used to treat arthritis, especially arthritis of the knees. In addition, many doctors now use PRP to treat a long list of orthopedic conditions, such as osteoarthritis. In a nutshell, there is no definitive answer to report when talking about how long PRP injections will last for arthritis. According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, very few insurance plans offer reimbursement for PRP injections.
The idea is that injecting PRP into damaged tissues will stimulate the body to develop new, healthy cells and promote healing. PRP injections take resources from your body, improve them, and reintroduce them to your body to aid in the self-healing process. Studies and research suggest that this is a good standard for how long PRP injections work in the body. But it's not clear if facial PRP injections relieve visible signs of aging, such as wrinkles and sagging skin.
You may need to stop taking certain blood-thinning medications, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, before you get PRP injections. The effectiveness of a PRP treatment depends on the specific condition for which PRP is being used. Recent research has shown that certain tendon problems can improve outcomes with PRP injections. In addition, patients who participated in this study reported that their pain levels improved for six months after PRP injections.
We can very confidently assume that treatments will begin to reduce pain one week after the initial injection and will continue to be very useful for six months, perhaps longer if maintenance injections are added. Ultimately, every person is different and how a patient's body responds to the first of the PRP injections will be decisive in terms of how the patient will respond to treatments in general and whether or not they will see significant gains. In addition to helping to heal injured tissue, some studies show that PRP injections reduce pain and increase mobility in people with rotator cuff injuries. Although PRP appears to be effective in treating certain chronic tendon injuries and low- to moderate-grade knee osteoarthritis, the medical community needs more scientific evidence before it can determine if PRP therapy is truly effective in other conditions.
In general, PRP injections are an attractive option for managing and treating arthritis pain because often the alternative is living with pain or undergoing invasive surgery.
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