Prolotherapy and Platelet Rich Plasma Treatment
 
What is Platelet Rich Plasma?

Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy offers a promising, natural solution to accelerate healing of tendon injuries and osteoarthritis, without subjecting the patient to significant risk. PRP is an emerging treatment in a new health sector known as "Orthobiologics." The philosophy is to merge cutting edge technology with the body's natural ability to heal itself.

Blood is made of red blood cells, white blood cells), plasma, and platelets. When in their resting state, platelets look like sea sponges, and when activated they form branches. Platelets were initially known to be responsible for blood clotting. In the last 20 years we have learned that when activated in the body, platelets release healing proteins called growth factors. There are many growth factors with varying responsibilities, however cumulatively they accelerate tissue and wound healing. Therefore after increasing the baseline concentration of these platelets, we are able to deliver a powerful cocktail of growth factors that can dramatically enhance tissue recovery.   

PRP History and Current Studies
PRP was initially used over 20 years ago in the dental community to enhance wound healing in cancer patients with jaw reconstruction. Soon afterward, its applications extended across many fields of medicine from cardiovascular surgery to orthopedics. Multiple studies are underway to help further refine the treatment and demonstrate its efficacy.

Gosens and Sluimer in a prospective, randomized controlled trial of 100 patients with tennis elbow found PRP beat cortisone shots in reducing pain and improving function within 24 weeks. This excellent study confirms platelet rich plasma performs better than the "gold standard" of treatment for patients with tennis elbow that don't respond to simple treatments.   

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What is Prolotherapy?
Prolotherapy is a simple, natural technique that stimulates the body to repair a painful joint. Prolotherapy provokes re-growth of collagen. This strengthens the ligaments and improves their elasticity. This improvement in elasticity and strength leads to better function. 

The technique involves the injection of a proliferant (a mild irritant solution) that causes an inflammatory response which "turns on" the healing process. The localized inflammation triggers a wound healing cascade, resulting in the deposition of new collagen—the material that ligaments and tendons are made of. The new collagen shrinks as it matures, tightening the ligament that was injected and making it stronger.

Prolotherapy is not the same as cortisone injections. Long term studies have shown that cortisone injections actually weaken tissue. In most cases, commonly prescribed anti-inflammatory medications and more drastic measures like surgery and joint replacement may not help, and often hinder or even prevent the healing process. Prolotherapy solutions, called proliferants, cause the ligaments and tendons to be strengthened.

Prolotherapy has the potential of being 100 percent effective at eliminating chronic pain due to ligament and tendon weakness. Most people with chronic back pain, whiplash injuries, knee injuries, hip injuries, and injuries to other ligaments have pain. Prolotherapy is the best form of treatment for chronic pain when diagnosed as due to ligament dysfunction. The ligaments and tendons produced after Prolotherapy appear much the same as normal tissues, except that they are thicker, stronger—up to 40% stronger in some cases!

Prolotherapy Applications
Prolotherapy can help in a wide variety of ligament and tendon related problems:

  • Migraine Headaches - Migraine headaches are often caused by ligament injuries to the neck. This same injury can also be the cause of other symptoms including pain reaching almost any part of the head and neck, visual blurring, dizziness, ringing in the ears, loss of balance, and other symptoms. Migraines caused by ligament injury can be effectively treated with Prolotherapy.
  • Sciatica - The most common cause of pain radiating down the legs is not "sciatica" or sciatic nerve injury, but a weakness or injury to the ligaments that support the pelvic joint. This radiating or "referred" pain can be effectively treated by Prolotherapy.
  • Arthritis and Fibromyalgia - Most people who suffer from arthritis and fibromyalgia have a portion or all of their pain from ligament and tendon injury. Most muscle spasms occur because the underlying ligaments are weakened and cannot stabilize the joints, as occurs in fibromyalgia. The same is true of arthritis, except the body attempts to stabilizing the joints by overgrowing bone. This overgrowth of bone is called arthritis. Prolotherapy allows the stabilizing of joints by strengthening the ligaments, thereby eliminating the muscle spasms of fibromyalgia, and the bone overgrowth of arthritis.

Prolotherapy Treatment
Prolotherapy is an extremely safe procedure. The risks are far less than taking aspirin or motrin for a lifetime to temporarily alleviate chronic pain. There is, of course, at least a slight risk involved in any medical procedure. In Prolotherapy, the risks and side effects will vary depending on the area being treated, and the doctor will discuss these possibilities fully with the patients during the pre-treatment consultation.

The number of treatments varies with each patient. Many of our patients have reported partial or complete relief of pain after only one session. Patients with a healthy immune system generally require fewer treatments. The average person requires 4 to 6 treatment sessions given at 4 to 6 week intervals.

For the patient who has localized areas of pain or the person who has had a recent injury from an accident, Prolotherapy is a very effective treatment to strengthen those specific areas and eliminate the pain. Realize, however, that Prolotherapy starts the growth of new healthy, strong tissue. Your body—your own immune system—grows the tissue. For the person who has terrible digestion, chronic fatigue, irritable bladder or other chronic nutritional, hormonal, or allergic problems, these deficiencies and illnesses should be corrected so the body will be able to respond to Prolotherapy.

The Ideal Prolotherapy candidate has the following:

  • Pain originating from a ligament or tendon
  • Strong immune system
  • Willingness to improve and receive follow-up visits
  • Healthy diet
  • Positive mental outlook
  • Non Smoker

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