With the progress of society, more and more people pay attention to exercise. Unscientific exercise makes our tendons, joints and ligaments unbearable. The result may be stress injury, such as tendonitis and osteoarthritis. So far, many people have heard of PRP or platelet-rich plasma. Although PRP is not a magic treatment, it does seem to be effective in reducing pain in many cases. Like other treatments, many people want to know the recovery time range after PRP injection.
PRP injection is used to try to treat many different orthopedic injuries and degenerative diseases, such as osteoarthritis and arthritis. Many people believe that PRP can cure their osteoarthritis. There are many other misunderstandings about what PRP is and what it can do. Once you choose PRP injection, there will be many questions about the recovery rate of PRP or platelet-rich plasma after injection.
PRP injection (platelet-rich plasma) is an increasingly common treatment option, providing treatment options for many patients with orthopedic injuries and diseases. PRP is not a magic treatment, but it does have the effect of reducing pain, reducing inflammation and improving function. We will discuss potential uses below.
The whole PRP program takes about 15-30 minutes from the beginning to the end. During PRP injection, blood will be collected from your arm. Put the blood into a unique centrifuge tube, and then put it into a centrifuge. Centrifuges separate blood into various components.
The risk of PRP injection is very low because you are receiving your own blood. We usually do not add any drugs to the PRP injection, so you will only inject part of the blood. Most people will feel sore after surgery. Some people will describe it as pain. The pain after PRP injection will vary greatly.
PRP injection into the knee, shoulder or elbow usually causes slight swelling and discomfort. Injecting PRP into muscles or tendons usually causes more pain than joint injection. This discomfort or pain lasts for 2-3 days or more.
How to prepare for PRP injection?
During PRP injection, your platelets will be collected and injected into the damaged or injured area. Some drugs can affect platelet function. If you take aspirin for heart health, you may need to consult your cardiologist or primary care physician.
Aspirin, Merrill Lynch, Advil, Alleve, Naproxen, Naproxen, Celebrex, Mobik and Diclofenac all interfere with platelet function, although it will reduce the reaction to PRP injection, it is recommended to stop taking aspirin or other anti-inflammatory drugs one week before and two weeks after injection. Tylenol will not affect platelet function and can be taken during treatment.
PRP therapy is used to treat the pain and inflammation of knee, elbow, shoulder and hip osteoarthritis. PRP may also be useful for many overused sports injuries, including:
1) Meniscus tear
When we use suture to repair meniscus during surgery, we usually inject PRP around the repair site. The current idea is that PRP may improve the chances of healing the repaired meniscus after suture.
2) Shoulder sleeve injury
Many people with bursitis or rotator cuff inflammation may respond to PRP injection. PRP can reliably reduce inflammation. This is the main goal of PRP. These injections cannot reliably cure rotator cuff tears. Like meniscus tear, we may inject PRP in this area after repairing the rotator cuff. Similarly, it is believed that this may improve the chances of rotator cuff tear healing. In the absence of lacerated bursitis, PRP can usually effectively relieve the pain caused by bursitis.
3) Knee osteoarthritis
One of the most common uses of PRP is to treat the pain of knee osteoarthritis. PRP will not reverse osteoarthritis, but PRP can reduce the pain caused by osteoarthritis. This article introduces the PRP injection of knee arthritis in more detail.
4) Knee joint ligament injury
PRP seems to be useful for the injury of the medial collateral ligament (MCL). Most MCL injuries heal themselves within 2-3 months. Some MCL injuries can become chronic. This means that they have been injured for longer than we expected. PRP injection may help MCL tear heal faster and minimize the pain of chronic tear.
The term chronic means that the duration of inflammation and swelling is much longer than the average expected recovery time. In this case, injection of PRP has been proved to improve the healing and minimize chronic inflammation. These happen to be very painful injections. In the weeks after the injection, many of you will feel worse and more stiff.
Other possible uses of PRP injection include:
Tennis elbow: ulnar collateral ligament injury of elbow.
Ankle sprain, tendonitis and ligament sprain.
Through PRP therapy, the patient’s blood is extracted, separated and re-injected into the injured joints and muscles to relieve pain. After injection, your platelets will release specific growth factors, which usually lead to tissue healing and repair. This is why it may take some time to see the results after injection. The platelets we inject will not directly cure the tissue. Platelets release many chemicals to summon or transfer other repair cells to the damaged area. When platelets release their chemicals, they cause inflammation. This inflammation is also the reason why PRP can be injured when injected into tendons, muscles and ligaments.
PRP initially causes acute inflammation to cure the problem. This acute inflammation may last for several days. It takes time for the recruited repair cells to reach the injured site and start the repair process. For many tendon injuries, it may take 6-8 weeks or longer to recover after injection.
PRP is not a panacea. In some studies, PRP did not help the Achilles tendon. PRP may or may not help patellar tendinitis (verbose). Some research papers show that PRP can not effectively control the pain caused by patellar tendinitis or jumping knee. Some surgeons reported that PRP and patellar tendinitis were successfully treated – therefore, we have no final answer.
PRP recovery time: What can I expect after injection?
After joint injection, the patient may experience pain for about two to three days. People who receive PRP due to soft tissue (tendon or ligament) injury may have pain for several days. They may also feel stiff. Tylenol is usually effective in controlling pain.
Prescription painkillers are rarely required. Patients usually take a few days off after treatment, but this is not absolutely necessary. Pain relief usually begins within three to four weeks after PRP injection. Your symptoms will continue to improve within three to six months after the injection of PRP. The recovery time range varies depending on what we are treating.
The pain or discomfort of osteoarthritis is usually faster than the pain associated with tendons (such as tennis elbow, golf elbow or patellar tendinitis). PRP is not good for Achilles tendon problems. Sometimes the reaction of arthritis joints to these injections is much faster than that of patients treated with tendinitis.
Why PRP instead of cortisone?
If successful, PRP usually brings lasting relief
Because degenerative soft tissues (tendons, ligaments) may have begun to regenerate or regenerate themselves. Bioactive proteins can stimulate healing and repair. New research shows that PRP is more effective than cortisone injection – cortisone injection can mask inflammation and has no healing ability.
Cortisone has no healing characteristics and cannot play a long-term role, sometimes causing more tissue damage. Recently (2019), it is now believed that cortisone injection may also cause cartilage damage, which may worsen osteoarthritis.
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Post time: Jan-19-2023