WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PRP INJECTIONS

WHAT IS PRP?

To keep it short and sweet, PRP stands for platelet rich plasma.

WHAT IS PRP USED TO TREAT?

PRP is a biologic therapy that is very contemporary in its use in the field of orthopedics and sports medicine. It's used in all areas of medicine at this point. But in our area, we use it to treat:

• arthritic conditions,

• degenerative conditions,

• problems involving ligaments,

• problems involving tendons,

and all with the idea that we're capitalizing on Mother Nature's own reparative cells.

WHAT MAKES PRP DIFFERENT THAN OTHER TYPES OF INJECTIONS OR TREATMENT?

Platelets release your own a person's own natural anti-inflammatory growth factors. These anti-inflammatory product components go, and then inhibit the destructive enzymes causing degeneration of cartilage or tendons. Growth factors are released by the platelets and then utilized in the repair process. These chemical messengers called cytokines are released by your platelets, and they recruit reparative cells to an area. When those reparative cells arrive in that area, they utilize those growth factors to allow cellular maturation. So the combination of anti-inflammatories that are naturally produced by your platelets, the combination of the growth factors and the cytokines, is what allows us to get a biological process that enhances Mother Nature's healing process. Most therapies in medicine are pharmacologic, which means relying on medications to do something. Mother Nature in our body and its inherent abilities to heal itself is what we are capitalizing on with the utilization of platelet rich plasma.

IS IT RIGHT FOR ME?

There is no definite set of guidelines to determine if PRP injections are right for you because everyone and every condition is different. We encourage you to discuss with your physician or schedule an appointment with one of our physicians here at SMASA. We currently have five locations in San Antonio and Boerne where we administer PRP injections.