If you’ve been diagnosed with osteoarthritis, it can be difficult to know which treatment will work best for your individual case. Here’s what you need to know so you can make an educated decision.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections are a cutting-edge treatment in sports medicine for muscle, tendon, joint, ligament, and cartilage injuries. Many professional athletes, including Kobe Bryant, have embraced this treatment because it can significantly shorten recovery time and get athletes back into the game more quickly.
The procedure is straightforward. A PRP injection doctor introduces a solution containing the patient’s own platelets, which are a normal component of blood that contain growth/healing factors, to the injured area. First, the doctor draws a small amount of blood from the patient’s arm. Then the blood is spun in a centrifuge, which separates out the platelets and concentrates the platelets and growth factors. This concentrated combination of platelets and growth factors acts like a super-healing booster shot which has the ability to heal injured tissue.
The doctor then breaks up the scar tissue at the injury site and uses ultrasound to guide the injection with great precision to where it is needed most.
This procedure is safe, and it provides a promising new non-surgical treatment to the current options available to the sports doctor. PRP injections appear to be especially useful for managing injuries that do not respond to other types of treatments.
If you or a loved one needs insight from an experienced and respected Bay Area sports injury specialist, please call our office today at 415-923-0944 to schedule a consultation and intake evaluation with Dr. Jeffrey Halbrecht.
You Might Also Enjoy...
If you’ve been diagnosed with osteoarthritis, it can be difficult to know which treatment will work best for your individual case. Here’s what you need to know so you can make an educated decision.
Shoulder pain in athletes can be caused by a number of issues, but athletes who perform repetitive overarm motions can be particularly susceptible to internal impingement.
Damage to cartilage in a joint like the knee can cause extreme pain, instability of the joint, and an inability to return to amatuer or professional sports. Cartilage restoration provides a means to become mobile again.
Masks have become more than just something to wear over the nose and mouth. They have become politically divisive, for some a proxy for the freedom of personal choice. Here, we will ignore the politics and focus on the physiology.
If you’re a woman who loves to play sports, you could have specific risks for certain types of injuries. Find out what common problems female athletes face and how they can be treated or prevented.
If you’ve suffered from one or more dislocations of your knee, causing it to become chronically unstable, your patella may be misaligned. Traditional surgery involves opening the knee, but there’s a less invasive option.