Boost Your Body’s Natural Healing Ability: Platelet-Rich Plasma Injections

Contributed by Center for Diagnostic Imaging  

As an athlete, you’re accustomed to pushing your body to new limits. But from weekend warriors to professional athletes alike, anyone can experience pain from the wear and tear repetitive activity takes on the body. As we move quickly toward Spring and Summer events and competitions, know your options to keeping your body moving pain free.

Over the past decade, a therapeutic injection procedure known as Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Injections has gone from a treatment for professional athletes to being accessible to anyone with tendon or ligament issues. The procedure can lead to a more rapid and thorough restoration of injured tissue to a healthy state by stimulating the body’s natural healing response.

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How PRP Injections Work

PRP injections are performed in a healthcare facility, typically by medical specialists, such as a radiologist, with advanced training in pain management injections. 

A small amount of blood is taken from your arm and placed into a centrifuge to separate red blood cells from the plasma which rises to the top. Using image guidance to monitor the position of the needle, the radiologist injects the plasma into the injured tissue.

PRP Injection Snapshot

• Cost is $650 per injection, typically not covered by insurance
•  Most patients benefit from a single injection 
•  Complete appointment takes 60 – 90 minutes

This plasma is rich in platelets that secrete healing growth factors to trigger the body’s healing response. As a result, new tissue begins to develop. As this tissue matures, it causes tightening and strengthening of the tendons, ligaments and muscle of the injury site.

Fostering Rapid Healing and Tissue Regeneration

PRP can be effective throughout the musculoskeletal system, including shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands, hip/pelvis, knees, ankles and feet. In special circumstances, PRP can be used to improve fracture healing, but it is primarily used for tendonitis, acute and chronic muscle strains and tears, and ligament sprains. Athletic patients in particular are often referred for a PRP injection to address conditions within the hamstrings.

Research and clinical data show that PRP injections are extremely safe, with minimal risk for any adverse reaction or complication. There is a small risk of infection from any injection into the body, but this is rare.

Why it’s Cool

You’re not injecting a foreign substance into your body to mask the pain. Because PRP is produced from your own blood, there is no concern for rejection or disease transmission and it maximizes the body’s ability to heal itself. What’s more, most patients benefit from a single injection.

Center for Diagnostic Imaging (CDI) offer PRP injections out of outpatient imaging centers in Federal Way, Lakewood and Seattle. If you have questions about the procedure, call CDI at (855) 643-7226.

This article was submitted by Center for Diagnostic Imaging. Learn more about CDI, their seven outpatient medical imaging centers throughout the Puget Sound, and their specialized clinical teams and services, including PRP Injections at www.myCDI.com/WA.