Platelet Rich Plasma - PRP - Therapy

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy is a natural option using your body’s own healing power to treat a chronic condition. The body only has a certain limited period of time, called the "inflammation stage," to heal an injury. After three to six months, the body stops trying to heal an injury and the injury becomes chronic. PRP can re-jump-start the healing process. In use in sports medicine since the mid-1990s, PRP therapy stimulates and enhances healing of soft tissue, such as damage caused by:

• Joint and cartilage degeneration
• Labrum tears
• Ligament sprains and tears
• Loose ligaments
• Following microfracture surgery
• Mild osteoarthritis
• Muscle tears
• Patellar tendinosis (jumper’s knee)
• Plantar fasciitis
• Tendonitis
• Tendinosis
• Tendon tears
• Lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow)

PRP can be used to treat certain injuries caused by a range of sports and activities, including tennis, golf, yoga, soccer, lacrosse, hockey, basketball and dance.

A few examples of treatment include:

• Wrist: extensor carpi ulnaris tear
• Plantar fasciitis (foot)
• Tennis elbow
• Small rotator cuff tear (shoulder)

For a Wall Street Journal article (March 30, 2010) on PRP, please click here.

PRP is often done with tenotomy.

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is the liquid part of the blood, which contains red and white bloods cells, as well as platelets. In the human body, platelets are about 10 percent of the blood’s cellular components. In PRP, your blood platelet concentration is increased to 90 percent, greatly increasing your blood’s healing power. PRP can be up to 10 times richer in the concentration of healing growth factors than normal blood, which helps speed the healing process. Because the treatment uses your own blood, PRP is safe with minimal risk of any adverse reaction. Unlike cortisone shots, PRP also strengthens rather than weakens structures in your body.

The injected platelets release huge numbers of growth factors, which induce an inflammatory reaction that initiates a healing cascade. Growth factors stimulate blood flow, matrix formation, which helps form new soft tissue, and restores tendon and ligament proteins, and strengthen cartilage. Especially for tendons, which have a poor blood supply, PRP can speed up healing and may eliminate the need for surgery.

Insurance companies do not cover PRP, although a consultation may be covered by your insurance. Please call for pricing. Should you see the radiologist in clinic before the injection, there will be an additional consultation fee.

For more information, please call 310-423-8694.

The S. Mark Taper Foundation Imaging Center provides a full range of advanced imaging, both radiology and cardiology, as well as interventional radiology and interventional tumor (oncology) treatments to the greater Los Angeles area, including Beverly Hills, Encino, Mid-Cities, Sherman Oaks, Silver Lake, Studio City, Toluca Lake and West Hollywood.