Harnessing Your Body’s Fixers; Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy
Regenerative medicine is the latest frontier in treating pain and injury. And Platelet-rich Plasma (PRP) therapy is one of several promising approaches offered by The Spine Institute Northwest to help relieve joint and back pain, and recover from injury faster.
PRP shows great promise in helping the body heal without surgery – and after surgery.
What are platelets?
Platelets are a natural constituent of your blood, famously known as your clotting factor. When you suffer a cut or abrasion, it is the platelets that come to the rescue to stop the flow of blood by sealing the cut. But platelets are so much more. They carry hundreds of growth factors that assist in a variety of repair functions in the human body.
What is Platelet-rich Plasma (PRP) therapy?
In PRP therapy, your doctor draws a few ounces of your own blood. He then spins that blood in a centrifuge to separate the platelets. Lastly, he introduces the resulting platelet-rich solution into the area of the body that needs healing.
Unlike other parts of the body, the spine and its parts do not get as much blood flow. So bathing the site of a tear with concentrated platelet plasma onto the site of the injury delivers the platelets directly to the area where their growth factors can best begin the healing. They clot together at the scene of injury and summon stem cells to come create new tissue.
“We’re just focusing your body’s innate ability to self-heal to the precise site where you really need to heal,” said Dr. Solomon Kamson, founder of The Spine Institute Northwest.
Afterward, patients need bed rest that day and should plan to take it easy for the next two to three days.
Maximum improvement is seen around 6 to 12 weeks, at which point another treatment can be given if needed for better results, however, the majority of patients improve after just one treatment.
Kamson also noted, the risks of rejection are eliminated because the platelets are harvested from the patient’s own blood.
Platelet-Rich Plasma therapy. Safe, simple and effective.
To learn more about regenerative medicine at The Spine Institute Northwest, visit https://www.spineinstitutenorthwest.com/treatments/regenerative-therapies/ or call (206) 496-0630.