7 PRP Treatments That Are Popular Right Now
The time it takes to draw a patient’s blood, add a little citrate, and use a centrifugal machine with a PRP kit is only 15-20 minutes. This is the amount of time needed to create Platelet-Rich Plasma, or PRP. This can then be used for many purposes, using speeding up a patients recovery.
PRP is by far the best healing agent that has growth factors and platelets to help with the healing process, which is also completely free and natural to obtain.
What are The Advantages Of Using PRP Correctly?
It is easy to create PRP simpy by placing blood in a centrifuge, but it can have very little, if any, platelets, and would otherwise be useless. However, with the right equipment, you can make PRP with up to 7x the amount of platelets. This can be amplified by using fat tissue and collagen fibers to create a PRP matrix.
7 Popular PRP Treatments
- Facial Treatments
Many skin centers are thriving due to being one of the first to adopt PRP therapies. With the lack of side effects or down time, it became incredibly popular. These treatments include wrinkle reduction, skin rejuvenation, dark circle and bag erasure, rosacea treatment, and even lip augmentation.
One popular and generic treatment option includes combining PRP and a treatment known as microneedling. When this is applied, it’s effects are similar to facelifts, for far less cost and side effects.
- Hair Loss
PRP growth factors can be beneficial when it comes to reversing non-genetic early stage hair loss. Despite there being a huge market for this, almost no practitioners actually utilize it. Many clients have seen promise after hair thinning, and many have seen beard regrowth over time.
- Arthritis and Cartilage
Arthritis treatments alone cost patients 6.4 billion dollars in 2013 for the US alone, with projections of up to 9 billion by the end of the decade. However, unlike the other treatments, PRP is seen as the only treatment that can not just reduce symptoms, but also regrow the cartilage. One of the most popular examples would be treatments for Temporomandibulaar Joint Osteoarthritis.
- Anti-aging Properties
When it comes to the anti-aging market, there are a endless number of treatments and procures available. Yet, none of them even stand close to the effectiveness of PRP therapy. PRP combined with Microneedling can ve highly effective for strech marks, acne scars, breast augmentation, and even skin conditions like Lichen Sclerosus.
- Pain Relief and Musculoskeletal Healing
There are a ton of treatments in this category, with many of them being incredibly more effective than leading treatments. These include healing Rotator Cuffs, Tennis Elbow, Achilles Tendonitis, Patellar Tendonitis, Back Pain, Hip and Pelvic problems, Degenerative Disc Disease, Golfer’s Elbow, Labaral Tear, Brusitis, neck pain, avascular Necrosis, and even pain related to nerve regeneration.
Almost all of these treatment, as opposed to those in other categories on this list, also use ultrasound guidance when injecting the PRP directly into the affected tissue. This can allow patients to see fantastic results in as little as 2 weeks.
- Fertility
Ovarian Rejuvination is where PRP is injected directly into a woman’s ovaries. This is meant to help reverse menopause and help lower fertility issues. This treatment can even be used for sexual regeneration. Although similar, this treatment is not the same as other treatments where PRO is injected into the vagina, and is supposed to treat looseness, dryness, low sex drive, and incontinence.
- COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
Allergies, asthma, and COPD are among the growing list of things that PRP is being used as a treatment for. For this to work, the PRP is mixed with a saline solution, and then, using a nebulizer, is inhaled, and helps to regenerate the lung tissue.
Although it can take up to 2 months for patients to see the effects, many are seeing improvements. Almost 1 million people suffer from COPD a year, so anything that can help treat the condition is beneficial.
The Future
PRP has been trending rather well in the recent years, and seems to be here for the long term. Not only it is a fully natural remedy, but it is one that works better than most or all traditional treatments. Many like it due to the fact that there are few side effects, it only takes a short amount of time, and there is no recovery period.
PRP has been adopted by thousands of clinics and practices throughout the US and the world. The demand for these treatments have been increasing almost faster than practices are choosing to provide them. Many patients are even willing to travel long distances just to receive these treatments.
So are you providing PRP treatments yet?
- Published in Blog
How Foot and Ankle Surgeons Can Benefit From PRP
Since it is a new science, many people are skeptical about Platelet-Rich Plasma, otherwise known as PRP. There are some studies out there that state that PRP work no better than a similarly administered placebo, but there are many other studies and doctors that claim that PRP works and works well. This also works well at a much lower cost and less side effects, than traditional medicine.
One branch where the skepticism is loud and clear is podiatry, which deals with feet and ankles. Trying to combat this skepticism can help many surgeons to lower complication rates, improve patient satisfaction, and have better outcomes. For instance, here is a list of cases where PRP has been effective for the feet and ankles.
- Plantar Fasciitis
PRP has become rather common as a treatment for Plantar Fasciitis, with many studies to prove the efficacy of this treatment. For instance, Dr. Daanial Kassicieh or Sarasota Neurology claims that PRP is one of the most effective treatments for this condition, and that PRP is actually fully cure it. Many of his patients have avoided surgery just by utilizing PRP therapy.
This is done with no down time, no rehabilitation, and no side effects. This woud explain why plantar fasciitis is the 5th popular medical condition treated by PRP. This can be explained by over 3 million people that are diagnosed with this and no other treatment really works for it, besides, in fact, PRP.
- Archilles Tendonitis
This is another condition that can be fairly hard to treat, and gets worse over time unless healed. Many surgical approaches are often trickey and generally do not end up with good results. Because of this, the main treatment option is simply to give patients corticosteroids to reduce the pain, but really nothing else to treat the symptoms.
However, there have been many studies done that have shown that PRP is a lot more effective, including that from the European Foot and Ankle Society. This means that PRP is safer and more effective alternative than any other treatments available.
- Diabetic Foot Ulcers
Diabetic foot ulcers can be troublesome, especially when they do not heal or heal properly. Over 2.5 million Americans with diabetes who suffer from these ulcers. About 11% of these cases may need amputation of their affected limb. However, some studies have noted that just one injection of PRP and a topical solution bi-weekly started to heal the ulcers in just 8 weeks. Topical PRP also has been shown to work better than anti-septic creams as well.
- Regenerating Bones
Bone regeneration is most commonly needed in food and ankle area. Although mechanical stabilization works best, the utilization of PRP has been surprising. PRP helps with healing bones and soft tissue at the damage site. According to a recent systematic review of 64 articles, the conclusion was to include more PRP therapy into the healing of foot and ankle bones.
The science behind this is solid, for bone or tissue to form, three things are needed in the area:
- A scaffold for the growth to take place
- Biological stimulants to signal proteins
- Stem cells that provide bone building potential
All three of these are crucial for bone formation.. PRP can provide at least two of these, so there is no reason to ignore it when it comes to bone regeneration.
- Ankle Sprains
This is an incredibly common condition, and can be effectively treated by using PRP therapy. In one randomized controlled trial, researchers studied the effects of PRP injections on athletes with ankle sprains. This study showed that not only did PRP reduce the healing time by 20 days, but that they also experienced much less pain. This can reduce the recovery period from 6 weeks, for just about 2 or 3 weeks.
Immobilization is Vital
When it comes to foot and ankle related injuries, one thing that really cannot be avoided in rest and rehabilitation. This is true regardless of whether PRP is administered. Because of this, many of the studies that shows PRP to be ineffective often don’t use rest and rehabilitation, and that alone can be an issue.
PRP is in no way a magic pill. All foot injuries need rest and rehabilitation in order to properly heal. With these two combined, it can drastically reduce healing times.
How can Foot and Ankle Surgeons Benefit?
Using PRP in foot and ankle injuries is not going anywhere, so utilizing it would be the best way to go. Test it out with your patients, and try using platelet-rich plasma therapy instead of simply prescribing pills or doing costly surgeries. Your patients will thank you in the end.
- Published in Blog