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Don’t Let Knee Pain Keep You Inside: A Look at PRP Therapy
Knee pain, stiffness, and inflammation are common issues. When you have knee pain, it affects your ability to walk and prevents you from enjoying your favorite outdoor activities.
Instead of accepting weeks, months, or years indoors because of your knee pain, consider visiting Naples Regenerative Institute for regenerative treatment. At the office in Naples, Florida, Glenn M. Flanagan, MD, treats knee pain naturally with platelet-rich plasma (PRP).
Dr. Flanagan, a board-certified interventional pain specialist, understands the complex processes that help your joints heal. Advanced regenerative therapies can help speed up and improve the healing process within a painful joint.
In this article, we’ll discuss how PRP therapy treats knee pain to help you enjoy your favorite activities again.
What to know about PRP therapy
PRP is an injectable substance that some pain specialists often use to improve healing within the knee and other damaged joints. The substance contains a high concentration of platelets, which are cells in your blood that attach to injured areas and signal a cellular healing process.
Platelets in PRP also release growth factors (chemical messengers) your body uses to help cells grow and heal in specific areas.
To isolate these two important healing components and create PRP, Dr. Flanagan first takes a sample of your blood with a quick blood draw in his office. He processes the sample in a machine that spins fast enough to make the cells in the sample separate into distinct layers.
Next, Dr. Flanagan removes the majority of the red blood cells, which aren’t useful for healing. After the red cells are removed, the remaining PRP contains at least five to 10 times the concentration of platelets as a normal blood sample.
Benefits of PRP therapy for knee pain
When injected into an injured or arthritic joint, PRP can help restore the joint’s function.
Benefits of PRP therapy for knee pain include:
- Triggering initial brief inflammation, which begins the healing process
- Helping new cells form to replace damaged ones
- Helping new collagen form
- Reducing inflammation to ease knee pain
PRP therapy for knee pain is a low-risk option because it’s minimally invasive and has minimal risk for complications.
When to consider PRP therapy for knee pain
PRP is an excellent option for knee pain and dysfunction due to osteoarthritis (OA) — a chronic condition involving degenerative joint damage. Osteoarthritis is common in the knee because your knees carry your body weight when you stand and walk, which puts them under pressure.
Research shows that PRP therapy reduced OA pain and improved knee function for up to 12 months, which is longer than typical results from steroid injections or viscosupplementation (hyaluronic acid injections) for knee OA.
Other studies with higher doses of PRP, such as the PRP Dr. Flanagan provides, show results lasting up to 2 years. This includes reduced knee stiffness, reduced pain, and improved function.
PRP and viscosupplementation combined may give you the best results for treating knee pain.
Dr. Flanagan might also recommend PRP therapy to treat knee pain and dysfunction from ligament, tendon, or cartilage injuries, which are common in athletes. PRP therapy often leads to a faster recovery, so you can return to being active as soon as possible.
Get in touch
If you’ve been spending lots of time inside because of knee pain, visit Naples Regenerative Institute for a treatment consultation to learn more about PRP. Call the office or request an appointment online today.
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