PRP Treatment is ideal for relief from Osteoarthritis

Platelet-Rich-Plasma Therapy also known as PRP Therapy or Treatment is a process wherein the doctor takes advantage of your blood’s natural healing properties through a very specialized process and repairs damaged tendons, ligaments, bones, muscles and more.

Although not very common/ standard practice, PRP is increasingly being used to treat osteoarthritis. While treating this condition, the doctor injects PRP directly to the affected joint with an objective to reduce pain, improve the function of joints and possibly, halt or slow the damage to the cartilage. This PRP injection contains plasma with a higher concentration of platelets than is found in normal blood.

To understand this better, you need to know:

What is plasma – It refers to the liquid component of blood; it helps red and white blood cells and other materials travel in the bloodstream. Plasma is mostly water but also includes proteins, nutrients, glucose, and antibodies, among other components.

What is platelet – Like red and white blood cells, platelets are a component of blood. Platelets by themselves do not have any restorative or healing properties; instead, they secrete substances that are called growth factors and other proteins that regulate cell division, stimulate tissue regeneration, and promote healing.

When a PRP is injected into the joint, the growth factors contained in the granules of the platelet respond in a localized, site-specific manner. This process is quick, with almost 70% of the growth factors being secreted in the first 10 minutes. The major growth factors in PRP that is used for treating Osteoarthritis facilitates in wound healing and tissue regeneration. This can be attributed to various growth factors and cytokines in PRP, for example, platelet-derived growth factor, epidermal growth factor (EGF), connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), platelet factor, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor, insulin-like growth factor etc. Once injected, PRP continues to attract all platelets from the system to build your cartilage for up to 10 days after injection. This triggers the immune system to catalyze healing.

PRP is also safe and useful when treating patients with haemophilia who develop chronic synovitis. In the treatment of ankles, elbows, and knee joints, PRP significantly reduced the Haemophilia. All patients reported relief in pain and improvement in VAS scores. Therefore, clinically it is established that PRP does help in treating Osteoarthritis very effectively.

Also, PRP Treatment has no negative effects noticed which can be attributed to the autologous origin of the platelets; Therefore, can be considered safe for all patients. All this and its long-lasting effects make PRP a very suitable treatment option when it comes to Osteoarthritis.

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