Living with severe knee pain is difficult. We understand. There are treatments to mask the pain, but they do not address the cause, just the symptoms. Once your knees cease to support you and allow you to move without pain, and once you have exhausted the non-invasive treatment options, the next step for most people is knee surgery.
You may be lucky enough that knee arthroscopy or meniscus surgery could address your issues and repair the damage that the years and miles have done to your knees. However, most people require knee replacement surgery to fully recover what they once had – the ability to take steps without pain.
Not everyone can afford the time off work, and the hassle of making it to physical therapy, and many people have responsibilities that make the idea of being laid up for weeks impossible.
Luckily, there are alternatives to traditional knee surgery. Advances in medicine have given us many opportunities to heal ourselves naturally, utilizing our own healing process to the fullest capacity to repair the damaged areas, rather than having parts of our bodies replaced with steel and plastic.
PRP Injections for Knees
As cartilage breaks down in your knee joint over time or due to injury, its ability to cushion the articulation of the joint is diminished. When the cushioning of the cartilage disappears, the simple movements of the knee can wreak havoc on the entire system of movement, including the tendons, muscles, and the bone itself.
Until recently, there was no way to help the body regenerate the cartilage and address the causes of knee pain without surgery. Now, thanks to research into the use of platelets already present in our bodies, we can help patients avoid risky surgeries altogether.
The PRP (platelet-rich plasma) process is simple. It starts by a sample of your blood drawn in our office. This blood sample is then spun in a centrifuge where the healing platelets are separated from the other blood components. This potent healing solution is then reinjected into your area of need, which boosts the healing process already present in our bodies. This treatment is minimally invasive and patients report little to no discomfort and can usually carry on with their day as normal.
Our bodies were engineered for growth and renewal, and by using platelet-rich plasma, we can rekindle that process inside a damaged knee, saving the need for an expensive, invasive procedure.