HealthyJoe: What is PRP Therapy?
You may have heard about Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods and other athletes getting “PRP” therapy. So what exactly is PRP therapy, its risks and its benefits?
We spoke to Dr. Akash Bajaj, a double-board certified physician specializing in sports medicine and pain management in Los Angeles. His patients include both professional athletes and general patients. Dr. Bajaj is a pioneer and a leader in PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) therapy and he believes that PRP is proving to be an exciting and effective treatment, especially for sports related injuries.
EveryJoe: What is PRP therapy?
Dr. Bajaj: PRP stands for platelet rich plasma. In essence we extract your own blood pulling out just the platelets with their associated growth factors and re-inject these platelets back to where you need them. The platelets and their corresponding growth factors can provide significant regenerative and restorative properties to the injured or degenerated region.
PRP can be made in a bedside centrifuge form an intravenous blood draw. The blood is spun down with a disposable kit in such a way as to spin off the blood and plasma components into a waste container and spine down and concentrate the platelet fraction. Most PRP preparations are three to five times as concentrated as the normal blood platelet concentration.
EJ: What well-known athletes have used PRP and how effective has it been?
Dr. Bajaj:
- Hines Ward has use platelet rich plasma therapy on at least two occasions for a torn medial collateral ligament — a knee injury.
- Troy Polamalu had one significant MCL injury for which he had PRP therapy.
- Donald Jones of the Buffalo Bills had PRP therapy for his injuries with excellent success.
- Alex Rodriguez used five PRP treatments to accelerate healing and recovery following hip surgery that left him in pain. His trainers were amazed to see how much faster A-Rod was able to get back into playing baseball.
- Kobe Bryant has had several arthroscopic knee surgeries for right knee pain. He went to Germany to receive platelet rich plasma therapy.
- Tiger Woods has undergone platelet rich plasma therapy more than once following ACL reconstructive surgery. His knee pain continued after surgery and he went with PRP with beneficial results.
- Rafael Nadal underwent PRP therapy after injuring his knee.
- Jonathan Bornstein twisted his knee resulting in a torn ligament. Facing the prospect of being for 10 weeks, he chose to have PRP. He was back in three weeks and was ready to play soccer again only two weeks later.
EJ: Who is a good candidate for PRP?
Dr. Bajaj: Almost anybody is a good candidate for PRP. The reason for this is there is a minimal downside and a tremendous upside. There are no foreign substances being injected into your body like other typical injection therapies. In essence we take your old blood with it’s healing components and re-inject it. Filtering it to the purest components which can be most advantageous. This can be helpful for the aggressive professional athlete, or the weekend warrior.
EJ: Is there any “downtime” after the treatment?
Dr. Bajaj: The procedure is done as an outpatient, which means you are and in out the same day and you are “down” for only just a few hours if not less. It all depends on what body part that is being injected and treated, however the downtime is really insignificant when considering the potential upside and benefits.
EJ: What other types of advancements have been made recently in regards to sports related injuries?
Dr. Bajaj: The ever-growing field of biological medicine which includes PRP has been demonstrating more and more possibilities and treatment options. This includes prolotherapy, PRP, and most excitingly bone marrow harvest for stem cell injection therapy.
What makes these interventions unique is they rely on your body’s own restorative and healing properties to help heal itself more aggressively, quicker and more efficiently than if the body was left to its own device.
