PRP Joint Injections

Over the past decade, PRP has been recognized for its potential in treating both chronic and acute musculoskeletal injuries involving ligaments, tendons, and joints. More recently, PRP injections are gaining wide media attention for their use with professional athletes in attempts to return them to competition as soon as possible.

In a quick and simple outpatient procedure, PRP injections can help you:

Build strength 
Improve balance and coordination 
Increase flexibility and range of motion 
Recover mobility 
Reduce pain and swelling
Regenerate cartilage 
Speed post-surgical recovery

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How PRP Works

When we suffer an injury to soft tissue like a tendon, our body’s initial response is to quickly send platelet cells to the affected tissue. That’s because platelets are not only the clotting cells of our blood, but they also contain powerful healing factors that get to work repairing injured tissue and providing assistance to stem cells in damaged muscles, tendons, and ligaments.

PRP therapy involves taking that natural process and supercharging it. The treatment is safe, simple, fast, and largely pain-free. We start by taking a sample of the patient’s blood and place it in a centrifuge where we separate the platelets and their healing and growth factors from the other elements of the blood. Dr. Zuniga injects those growth factors right into injured or damaged tissue where these specialized cells jumpstart repair and healing, dividing and building new tissue.

Since PRP therapy uses your own blood rather than blood from a donor, there is no risk of transmissible infection. The non-surgical treatment typically takes only a few hours, including preparation, injection, and recovery. No anesthesia is needed, nor is any significant recovery time involved.

Conditions Treated

PRP can help promote healing in patients with a variety of musculoskeletal conditions. We may suggest PRP injections for people with sport- or activity-related injuries, arthritis, or during or after surgery on a major joint. 

Our team will take the time to speak with you about your goals for treatment and conduct a thorough exam to determine if you are a good candidate for PRP. If approved, we will then develop a personalized treatment plan for you.

Platelet-Rich Plasma for Sports Medicine Injuries

PRP can help promote healing in those with a sports or activity-related injury. In these patients, PRP can reduce recovery times for non-surgical injuries such as Tennis elbow, Golfers elbow or Achilles tendinitis. PRP injection can also benefit people with tendon or soft tissue injuries who would like to avoid surgery.

PRP injection is often with sports medicine injuries related to the:

Achilles tendon
Anterior cruciate ligament
Lateral/medial epicondyle (Tennis/Golfer's elbow)
Rotator cuff

Platelet-Rich Plasma for Joint Pain

PRP can be beneficial for people with arthritis or pain in major joints. In these patients, PRP injections can help alleviate discomfort and improve function. People who aren’t yet ready for a hip, knee, wrist, or shoulder replacement are often good candidates for PRP injection.

PRP injection is used most often with the following joints:

Wrist (carpal tunnel)
Glenohumeral (shoulder)
Knee
Foot (Plantar fasciitis)

The Treatment Process

PRP injections are prepared using your own blood. After it's drawn, your blood is placed in a specialized system called a centrifuge, to separate platelets from the other components of your blood, such as red blood cells.

Next, these highly concentrated platelets — or PRP — are injected into the site of your pain or injury. There, they release growth factors that help accelerate the healing-regenerative process. Your doctor will anesthetize the treatment site before the procedure to reduce initial discomfort.

Benefits of PRP

PRP injections can offer consistent pain relief and functional improvement for one year or longer. 
Because PRP is derived from your own blood, there is a low chance of having an allergic reaction or abnormal immune response. 
PRP injections have minimal risk of local infection (<1%). Serious side effects or complications are extremely rare. Minor pain at the site of the injection is common in the short term but is easily managed with pain relievers. 
PRP injections are beneficial for a broad range of people including athletes, post-surgical patients, and those with arthritis or who want to avoid surgery. 
Patients receiving PRP injections are helping to advance pioneering medical research.

PRP Injections Typically Offer Many Months of Relief

But a question we are often asked about PRP therapy is how long these injectable treatments last. The answer depends on three primary factors:

The nature and extent of the injury
The patient’s overall health
The patient’s initial reaction to a PRP injection

While every patient is different and not everybody responds to the treatment in precisely the same way. But many studies suggest that the relief offered by PRP injections can last up to 12 months. That relief does not happen instantly, however. After a treatment, it can take several weeks for the healing factors to do their repair work. But once they do, the results can be dramatic in terms of reduced pain and increased mobility. If an initial treatment does not achieve desired results after three months or so, a second injection can be administered.

PRP Joint Injections