How To Avoid Re-Injuring Your ACL
An ACL injury can end a season, but it doesn’t have to keep you out of the game permanently. It’s crucial to take the right steps during your recovery to avoid future problems. Read on to learn how.
What Issues Can PRP Treat?
With each passing year, medical treatments get better and better. One area in particular involves therapies that strive to heal the body instead of addressing symptoms alone.
There are several regenerative medicine treatments, but they share a similar goal. Generally speaking, they harness and amplify naturally occurring substances to help heal damage within the body. In the case of PRP, that means growth factors found in the blood.
Dr. Jared Tadje offers PRP and OrthoBiologic treatments at Tadje Orthopaedics. These cutting-edge therapies work in targeted ways to heal damage and restore function in the body.
Are you curious to see if PRP is right for you? In this blog, we discuss how PRP works and explain three specific uses for the treatment at our practice in Meridian, Idaho.
How PRP works
PRP may seem like a complex therapy, but it’s actually quite simple and straightforward. In fact, Dr. Tadje can perform the entire treatment during a single office visit.
PRP therapy starts with a blood draw. Then we place your sample in a centrifuge for a few minutes. That’s where the magic happens.
The centrifuge separates the platelets in your blood from the liquid portion known as plasma. These cells play a key role in healing because they have growth factors that stimulate tissue regeneration and cell reproduction.
Dr. Tadje can deliver these powerful agents directly to an injury site by creating an injection containing concentrated amounts of platelets for PRP. The result? PRP kickstarts and speeds up the healing process wherever you need it most.
PRP appointments usually take less than an hour and pose few risks or complications, since the sample comes from your own body. It’s also highly effective for several orthopaedic issues, but it’s not a treatment that provides instant results.
In most cases, you can expect to see your symptoms start improving within a few weeks, and Dr. Tadje could suggest a series of treatments to ensure the best outcomes.
Common orthopaedic uses for PRP therapy
As we mentioned, PRP can offer benefits for various conditions — even hair loss. But we typically use it in three specific areas.
Soft tissue injuries
One popular use for PRP injections involves soft tissue injuries, both acute and chronic, such as:
- Tennis or golfer’s elbow
- Jumper’s knee
- Rotator cuff tears
- Achilles tendon tears
- Muscle injuries
We might also suggest PRP if you need help with tendinitis or sports-related injuries, like sprains or strains.
Bone and joint issues
In addition to soft tissue injuries, we use PRP for fractures and joint problems, including osteoarthritis.
Not only can PRP help repair cartilage in these areas, but it also reduces inflammation. Together, that can decrease pain and improve function in a joint with damage. Even better? Some studies show results that last up to two years, depending on the treatment location.
Post-surgical healing
Finally, we often administer PRP to support the healing process from orthopaedic surgeries. This added step can help shorten post-surgical recovery times by helping muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, and joints heal even faster.
Dr. Tadje could suggest combining PRP with a variety of surgeries, especially those involving the knee.
Could you have an injury that would benefit from PRP? Schedule a consultation with Dr. Tadje at Tadje Orthopaedics in Meridian, Idaho, by calling 208-515-2654 today.
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