Osteoarthritis of the knee is a common, painful, and debilitating condition. In fact, the knee is more often afflicted with arthritis than any other joint in the body. Not only does knee arthritis significantly impact quality of life, but relieving pain and restoring mobility usually involves invasive knee replacement surgery and all of the risks, burdens, costs, and downtime that come with it. For those reasons, physicians and researchers have spent years studying and developing less invasive yet equally effective alternatives to surgery for the treatment of knee arthritis. One such approach that has been shown to offer significant improvement without surgery is platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy.
What is PRP Therapy For Knee Arthritis?
When we suffer an injury to soft tissue, our body’s initial response is to rush platelet cells to the affected tissue. That’s because platelets are not only the clotting cells of our blood, but they also contain powerful healing factors that get to work repairing injured tissue and providing assistance to stem cells in damaged muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
PRP therapy involves taking that natural process and supercharging it. The treatment is safe, simple, fast, and largely pain-free. We start by taking a sample of the patient’s blood and then place that sample in a centrifuge where we separate the platelets and their healing and growth factors from the other elements of the blood. Dr. Ceballos injects those growth factors right into your knee joint or injured area where these specialized cells jumpstart repair and healing, dividing and building new tissue.
Since PRP therapy uses your own blood rather than blood from a donor, there is no risk of transmissible infection. The non-surgical treatment typically takes only a few hours including preparation, injection, and recovery. No anesthesia is needed nor is any significant recovery time involved.
Does PRP Therapy Work For Knee Arthritis?
PRP therapy is an increasingly attractive option for the treatment of knee arthritis because it works and is safer, cheaper, and less burdensome than surgery, steroid injections or other traditional approaches.
Multiple studies have proven the effectiveness of PRP therapy for knee arthritis. Researchers in a 2018 study concluded that:
“Platelet-rich plasma therapy is a simple, low-cost and minimally invasive intervention which is feasible to deliver in primary care to treat degenerative lesions of articular cartilage of the knee. This therapy appears to have minimal associated adverse events and may have beneficial effects in terms of pain, health utility, patient satisfaction and goal-orientated outcomes.”
Schedule an Appointment at OrthoMiami Today To Learn More About How PRP Therapy Can Help You With Knee Arthritis
At OrthoMiami, we understand the challenges and struggles that come with knee arthritis. We are committed to using the most advanced and effective methods to relieve pain, repair joints, and restore mobility to patients suffering from the condition, including using PRP therapy when other, more conservative treatments have failed to work. The OrthoMiami team always welcomes new patients and can generally schedule new patient appointments within a couple of days.
Please contact us today at (305) 596-2828 to schedule your appointment. We look forward to meeting you.
