Sports injuries are alarmingly common in the United States, with millions of children, teens, and adults suffering some type of sports-related injury every year. While many of these injuries heal successfully, plenty of athletes of all levels worry about how long they’ll be away from their sport while their injuries heal.
For our patients in Eugene and Roseburg, Oregon, the team at Pacific Sports and Spine has a solution: PRP therapy focused on helping their sports injuries heal more quickly, so they can get back to their game in record time.
PRP is a type of regenerative therapy that promotes natural healing. Here’s how it can help you.
PRP stands for platelet-rich plasma, and it’s a product derived from your own blood. Plasma is the liquid part of blood, and platelets are tiny cells or cell fragments found in blood.
Platelets are perhaps best known for their role in blood clotting, but they also contain an abundance of proteins called growth factors. These proteins play key roles in healing and tissue regeneration.
PRP contains many more platelets than your normal blood — about 5-10 times more. That means the healing potential of the growth factors in PRP is enhanced.
When injected near an injured area, PRP can help promote new cell growth, repair damaged tissues, and reduce inflammation that can otherwise interfere with healing. And since PRP is derived from your own blood, there’s no risk of allergic reactions or rejection.
PRP has been used to treat many types of sports injuries, but it tends to achieve optimal healing in injuries involving your tendons or ligaments. It’s also effective in treating many acute muscle injuries and osteoarthritis.
Specifically, PRP can be very helpful in treating injuries like:
PRP is also widely used during surgery to jumpstart the healing process.
PRP therapy begins with a blood draw, as we extract a small sample of your blood. We process the blood in a device called a centrifuge to separate and concentrate the platelets. Then we inject the PRP into the site of the injury.
After injection, you may notice some swelling or tenderness in the area, which is common with any injection. We provide you with instructions about how active you can be during the initial stages of healing.
PRP is just one way we help athletes of all levels return to the activities they love. To learn more about PRP and the other therapies we offer, book an appointment with our team at Pacific Sports and Spine today.
