Medicine constantly adapts to discoveries and innovations as we learn more about the human body, diseases, and treatments. Platelet-rich plasma or PRP therapy has been instrumental in helping patients suffering from many injuries and chronic conditions by promoting faster healing and reducing inflammation. Let’s discuss how this miraculous minimally invasive treatment option is relieving arthritis discomfort in many patients!
What is PRP?
Platelets are a type of blood cell that is involved in healing and reducing inflammation in our bodies while plasma is the liquid component of our blood. Platelet-rich plasma can be made directly from a patient's blood, serving as a natural treatment process for eliminating pain and inflammation from arthritis.
How Does PRP Therapy Treat Arthritis?
Arthritis is an extremely common condition where the joints of your body deteriorate causing pain, immobility, stiffness, and weakness. PRP therapy serves to treat arthritis via an escalated natural process that turns off inflammation and stops the pain. The platelet-rich plasma is injected into the affected area, where the platelets recruit stem cells and release growth factors to stimulate an anti-inflammatory process. This natural process will alleviate discomfort, restore function, and improve mobility.
What are the Benefits of PRP Therapy?
Apart from the obvious benefits of treating your arthritis and its associated symptoms, there are a variety of reasons why you would choose PRP therapy including:
- Minimally-Invasive: Unlike other arthritis treatments, PRP therapy only involves an injection at the treatment area. This means you should be free from worrying about wound treatment, scarring, or infection.
- Natural: As previously mentioned, platelet-rich plasma is derived from a patient’s blood while utilizing the patient’s natural healing processes to restore arthritic joints.
- Preventative: Not only is research showing that PRP therapy is effective at relieving arthritis symptoms, but it may also work to prevent the worsening of arthritis by slowing down the speed at which cartilage wears away, providing lasting relief and potentially increasing the time before a patient would need a joint replacement.
Laser Therapy with PRP Therapy
Another minimally invasive, natural arthritis treatment is laser therapy. Laser therapy is a newfound procedure that stimulates cellular repair and anti-inflammatory pathways using light energy in joints affected by arthritis. When combined with PRP therapy, patients have found that their arthritis pain has been significantly reduced more effectively when they are used together than by themselves.1 These two treatments combined together provide the most advanced and comprehensive treatment available for arthritis.
Platelet-rich plasma therapy is an excellent option for individuals suffering from mild to moderate arthritis. If you are interested in alleviating your arthritis discomfort, Dr. Andrew Ehmke offers both PRP therapy and Laser therapy so that you can find relief now!
AUTHOR: Dr. Andrew Ehmke is a board-certified and fellowship-trained joint replacement surgeon specializing in robotic-assisted and minimally invasive hip and knee replacement in Chicagoland and NW Indiana.
