Platelet-Rich Plasma

A living organism is constantly replacing its cells in a complex process that requires removing older tissues and replacing them with new tissues. The regeneration of new tissue is accomplished by Stem Cells and fostered by growth factors and hormones. Stem Cells exist in all of our tissues, ready to be spurred into action when needed.

Growth factors are bioactive proteins that initiate and control the healing process. Blood and bone marrow contain these factors in abundance in the plasma and especially in specialized cells called Platelets. A small amount of the patient's own growth factors released into an injured tendon, ligament, or joint initiates the healing process by stimulating the nearby Stem Cells to turn on and begin the repair process.

The specialty of Regenerative Medicine takes advantage of these processes to direct these healing capabilities to sites of severe injury or degeneration to promote a directed repair and rejuvenation of the region. Increasing the bioactivity at the wound site takes medicine one step closer toward its ultimate goal of naturally accelerating the body's normal healing process. Many patients benefit from Prolotherapy, which uses Dextrose (a sugar) and other compounds to stimulate the release of Growth Factors and Stem Cells in an area to begin the repair process. This has been in use for over 75 years and has proven to be quite safe and effective. Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) is a more recent innovation that may initiate the healing process faster, but is more complicated and expensive to provide to the patient than traditional solutions.

The Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) technique involves using specialized equipment to draw and process the patient's own blood. This is then injected into the site of injury using either fluoroscopy or ultrasonic guidance. The entire process can take one to two hours. The site of injection will likely be very painful for one to two weeks. The process may be repeated two, three, or more times to achieve the desired benefit of pain reduction, joint strengthening, ligament and tendon repair, and improved function by 4-6 months. Insurance coverage is not clear and appears to be changing at present. We offer these techniques on a cash-pay basis.

Stem Cells can be concentrated from the patient’s own bone marrow and from fat, and then directly injected into the areas requiring repair. The numbers of Stem Cells obtained may not be enough with current methods to affect the tissue sufficiently. Processes are being developed to “expand” the numbers of cells available using advanced harvest and culture techniques. Many future breakthroughs in spine and sports medicine will undoubtedly occur through the use of a patient’s own Growth Factors and Stem Cells.