Can PRP Therapy Help With Chronic Pain?

People are increasingly looking for nonpharmaceutical ways to relieve chronic pain. At Asheville Regenerative Orthopedics & Sports Medicine in Asheville, NC, board-certified doctor of physical medicine and rehabilitation Dr. Christie Lehman offers state-of-the-art PRP therapy to help treat joint, ligament, muscle, or tendon pain in the knee, hip, shoulder, hand, wrist, foot, ankle, back, and elbow.

Keep reading to find out how PRP therapy may be able to help relieve your chronic pain.

How does PRP therapy treat chronic pain?

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy is a nonsurgical, nonpharmaceutical treatment that uses the reparative elements of your body's own blood to help stimulate healthy tissue growth.

Dr. Lehman uses the Regenexx® Super Concentrated Platelet (SCP) Procedure and Platelet Lysate (PL) protocol to draw blood from a patient's arm, purify it to extract blood plasma and growth factors, and create a natural treatment to help relieve pain.

The blood plasma is then re-injected into the treatment area, stimulating repair cells and your body's natural healing response. The goal is both repair and pain relief.

What type of chronic pain is PRP treatment good for?

PRP therapy is typically geared toward patients with mild to moderate chronic pain due to osteoarthritis or chronic tendonitis in or around the large and small joints. Treatment sites include the shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers, hip, knee, ankle, back, spine, and even toes.

PRP therapy is an excellent treatment for those who have tried rest, physical therapy, and medication but failed to achieve results. Ideal patients are cancer-free nonsmokers who are otherwise healthy and free of infections. This ensures that your body uses its energy primarily to help heal the treatment site.

How long does it take PRP to relieve chronic pain?

Unlike pharmaceutical methods that simply mask pain and can lead to addiction, PRP is used for long-term results.

However, the results of PRP take time. That's because it takes the body time to stimulate repair cells and for those repair cells to build new tissue and restore normal function.

While PRP treatment only takes 20 – 30 minutes in the office, patients may not see improvements for 4 – 6 weeks, and optimal results can take 6 – 9 months. While the treatments may cause tenderness and soreness in the treatment area in the few days after treatment, there is typically no downtime after PRP therapy. Occasionally, patients may experience a flare-up of pain as the body responds to the initial injection.

The good news is that, in the long run, PRP treatment can reduce inflammation and pain that limits your activity or enjoyment of life. It also helps you reduce the use of cortisone shots and drugs that can have side effects and provide only temporary relief.

PRP therapy is an excellent option for those who want to hold off on surgery. However, it can also be used to aid help to stimulate healing after surgery.

Relieve chronic pain with PRP therapy in Asheville, NC

If you've already tried lifestyle improvements or pharmaceutical remedies to relieve chronic pain, PRP treatment may be right for you. Injections can be administered in a wide array of treatment sites around the body, allowing you to treat your pain naturally from head to toe.

If you're experiencing chronic joint, ligament, muscle, or tendon pain and want to see if PRP treatment is right for you, Dr. Christie Lehman can help. To get started, schedule a consultation at Asheville Regenerative Orthopedics & Sports Medicine in Asheville, NC.