What Is PRP?

Overview

Platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, is a substance that’s thought to promote healing when injected. Plasma is a component of your blood that contains special “factors,” or proteins, that help your blood to clot. It also contains proteins that support cell growth. Researchers have produced PRP by isolating plasma from blood and concentrating it.

The idea is that injecting PRP into damaged tissues will stimulate your body to grow new, healthy cells and promote healing. Because the tissue growth factors are more concentrated in the prepared growth injections, researchers think the body’s tissues may heal faster.Many famous athletes like Tiger Woods and tennis star Rafael Nadal have been known to use these injections to help heal injuries.

What are the purposes of PRP injections?

Researchers are trying out PRP injections across a number of applications in sports medicine. Examples of these include:

Tendon injuries: Tendons are tough, thick bands of tissue that connect muscle to bone. They are usually slow to heal after injury. Doctors have used PRP injections to treat chronic tendon problems, such as tennis elbow, Achilles tendonitis at the ankle, and jumper’s knee, or pain in the patellar tendon in the knee.

Acute injuries: Doctors have used PRP injections to treat acute sports injuries, such as pulled hamstring muscles or knee sprains.

Postsurgical repair: Sometimes doctors use PRP injections after surgery to repair a torn tendon (such as a rotator cuff tendon in the shoulder) or ligaments (such as the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL).

Osteoarthritis: Doctors have injected PRP into the knees of people with osteoarthritis. A 2015 studyTrusted Source found that PRP injections were more effective than hyaluronic acid injections (a traditional therapy) for treating osteoarthritis.

How do you prepare for PRP injections?

Generally speaking, there are few steps to preparing for PRP injections.

However, PRP can be injected in different ways. For example, sometimes a topical numbing lidocaine solution is applied before injection.

Other times, a local anesthetic is mixed with the PRP to reduce any discomfort. Sometimes, your doctor will inject or apply PRP during a surgery. In this instance, preparation for PRP injections would involve following your surgeon’s recommendations presurgery.

PRP injection process

Here’s what to expect from a typical PRP injection process:

1. A healthcare professional will draw a sample of your blood. The amount of the sample depends on where the PRP will be injected.Forexample,the common amount of blood taken for injection was 10 milliliters. This is no larger than one teaspoon.

2. The blood is placed into a centrifuge. This is a machine that spins around very quickly, causing the blood components to separate. The separation process takes about 15 minutes.

3. A technologist takes the separated plasma and prepares it for injection into the affected area.

4. Doctors will often use imaging, such as ultrasound, to pinpoint specific areas for injection, such as the tendon. Your doctor will then inject the PRP into the affected area.

This article is excerpted from：

https://www.healthline.com/health/prp#purpose