When you have joint pain, your whole life suffers. Forget about playing sports, you probably can barely make it up the stairs. Luckily, regenerative medicine can help. Read on to learn how prp injections help your joint pain get better.
There are a lot of reasons you may end up with joint pain; arthritis, previous injuries, and obesity are just a few of the causes. When you’re dealing with this issue, you want relief, and you want it fast.
Regenerative medicine is just one of the many treatments that’s shown a lot of promise when it comes to pain in your joints. PRP is one of these therapies that uses your own blood platelets to activate your body’s healing cascade.
At Regenexx Las Vegas, our team is ready to help you finally overcome your joint pain once and for all. Josh Goodwin, MD, FAAPMR is our non-surgical orthopedic specialist who offers PRP as one of the many pain treatments for your joints.
Dr. Goodwin and the team have years of experience in helping people with stubborn pain that just won’t quit without expert treatments.
What causes joint pain?
Joint pain is any type of discomfort in one or more of the joints in your body. This pain may affect large joints, like your hips and shoulders, or smaller joints, like your hands and toes.
Pain in your joints is common as you get older, but is usually mild and goes away on its own. This is often part of the natural wear-and-tear in your joint. However, if the pain persists and affects your daily living, it could be due to a variety of problems, including:
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Osteoarthritis
- Gout
- Tendinitis
- Bursitis
- Infections
- Ligament sprains/tears
- Bone stress reactions/injuries
Injuries are another major cause of joint pain. It can happen from an acute injury, such as getting hurt during a sport, or from an old injury that leads to chronic problems and pain in your joint.
Being overweight may also lead to pain in your joints. The excess weight that you carry puts extra pressure on certain joints, especially your knees, hips, and spine. Over time, obesity causes the breakdown of your joints, leading to pain.
How does PRP work?
PRP is an injection that’s derived from your own cells. It’s made up of plasma and platelets, both of which are components of your blood. The plasma is the liquid portion, while the platelets are one of the cellular components of your blood that is involved with activating a healing response.
To get the PRP, Dr. Goodwin draws multiple vials of blood from your arm. This is a simple procedure and only takes a few minutes. The blood vials are then taken to our cell processing laboratory for isolation and concentration of the platelets. . A machine called a centrifuge is used to separate your blood’s cellular components into different layers which then allows our certified lab technician to manually isolate and concentrate your platelets according to your customized treatment plan.
This process helps increase the concentration of helpful growth factors and anti-inflammatory proteins found in your platelets and plasma which can then be used to help stimulate a localized healing effect in the area of joint damage.
The concentrated platelets and plasma are then placed in a syringe for injection. Dr. Goodwin cleans off the area around your joint, and uses high level image guidance with ultrasound and/or fluoroscopy to inject the PRP into the joint and surrounding tissue. There’s minimal downtime needed, and you can go home after your injection.
The results after a PRP injection
After a PRP injection, it can take several weeks to months to see and feel the full results. It takes time for the growth factors/proteins to improve the pain coming from the damaged tissues within and around your joint.
However, the PRP goes to work right away, releasing the growth factors and anti-inflammatory proteins helping to stimulate a more robust healing response to the painful areas of your joint and surrounding muscle, tendon and ligaments that may also contribute to your discomfort.
PRP is most effective in mild to moderate cases of osteoarthritis in your joints, especially your knees. Success rates may be somewhat lower for those with more severe osteoarthritis.
If your joint pain is due to mild to moderate problems in your joint, PRP is often effective at reducing your pain and improving your function. While it takes a few weeks to see results, your body is hard at work to improve the pain related to years of damage.
If you’re interested in PRP to help with your joint pain, don’t hesitate to call our office in Henderson, Nevada today at 702-968-0921, or request a consultation on our website.
