Blog Post

PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injections are a natural treatment to mobilize your body’s natural healing abilities and help you recover after an injury. At Northeast Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine in Schertz, Live Oak, and San Antonio, Texas, our team of orthopedic specialists understands that you want to explore nonsurgical solutions for a quicker recovery. Our goal is to help you find a recovery plan that fits your lifestyle and personal goals. 

Whenever possible, we encourage nonsurgical solutions like PRP because it means less downtime and faster healing for you. Here, we explain the process and describe three key ways that PRP therapy can accelerate your recovery.

The PRP therapy process

PRP is derived from your own blood. The process begins with a simple blood draw, which we put into a centrifuge to separate and concentrate the platelets from other blood components. Platelets work in a couple of ways when you’re injured. 

They create a fibrin clot, which helps you stop bleeding and start healing. And they release growth factors, your body’s own powerful natural healing agents — this is where the remarkable regenerative strength of PRP becomes most obvious.

Here are three ways PRP and its growth factors can help you heal faster.

1. PRP therapy reduces inflammation and boosts circulation

PRP increases local circulation where it’s injected, leading to more oxygen and nutrients around your injury for faster healing. Improved circulation also helps reduce inflammation, which is often at the root of pain with injuries. 

2. PRP therapy promotes tissue repair

The human body is capable of repairing itself in many cases, but sometimes the body’s natural injury response might not be enough. While your body sends a flood of platelets and growth factors to the site of an injury, that tapers off quickly because the body has built-in limits for the initial injury response. 

PRP injections work around this by placing a large number of platelets at the injury site to continue the healing on a magnified level. Adding those growth factors around your injury stimulates new collagen production. This protein is crucial for tissue repair and reinforcement. 

In addition, new collagen growth creates a type of scaffold to support brand new tissue growth.

3. PRP therapy recruits master cells

PRP growth factors recruit the human body’s master cells to come to the site of your injury. Those cells are like blank slates, and they have a remarkable ability to morph into any kind of cell in the human body — tendons, ligaments, muscle, cartilage, or even bone. 

Another interesting quality of master cells is that they can make more of themselves. Your master cells can divide and multiply based on how much tissue your body needs.  

Once at the injury site, the master cells start building new tissue to replace badly damaged areas. 

PRP therapy for a nonsurgical healing solution

PRP offers an effective nonsurgical solution for many injuries affecting the shoulders, knees, hips, ankles, and other parts of the body. While PRP excels in treating soft tissue damage, it may also help with bone injuries like fractures, as some studies show it can improve bone strength and density. 

If you’re interested in a nonsurgical path to faster healing, call the Northeast Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine office nearest you or reach out online to book your appointment today.