PRP Therapy
Chronic pain can be challenging to manage without professional solutions. When individuals are handling unrelenting daily pain, over-the-counter medications and short-term pain relievers, like heat and ice, are not enough. Platelet-rich plasma, also known as PRP therapy, is an effective treatment for chronic pain that regenerates the damaged tissue using your body’s natural healing properties.
Triggering the Body’s Natural Healing Response Is Possible With PRP.
North Shore Headache and Spine offers PRP therapy to help patients in Huntington, New York, find relief from chronic pain and live life to its fullest. Led by Frank Ocasio, MD, board-certified in anesthesiology and interventional pain management, North Shore Headache and Spine aims to educate patients about medical conditions and provide personalized treatment plans. Dr. Ocasio utilizes PRP therapy to restore function and improve quality of life without medication.
What Is Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP)?
The body is an amazing system with self-healing capabilities that medicine can leverage to treat different conditions. Platelet-rich plasma is a regenerative medicine treatment that treats chronic pain by using the body to boost and restore soft tissue in targeted areas. It can be created from your blood in your doctor’s office by centrifuging it to concentrate the platelets in the plasma, making platelet-rich plasma. The platelets in your body play a significant role in clotting the blood during an injury and promoting healing. They contain more than 1,000 different proteins, including various types of growth factors. The growth factors in PRP are responsible for reducing pain, repairing, and regenerating healthy tissue.
PRP therapy is shown to be as effective or more effective than cortisone injections. Cortisone reduces inflammation, while PRP enhances healing and reduces pain. PRP therapy is an excellent choice for treating mild to moderate degeneration.
How Does PRP Therapy Assist In the Healing ProceSs?
When you get a cut or scrape, your body naturally shifts to repair mode and sends platelet cells to the injured area. Platelet cells have healing and growth properties that can repair damaged tissue. PRP therapy is a similar process. When platelet-rich plasma is injected into your body, it kickstarts the natural healing process by placing the platelets directly at the site of pain and at a concentration of up to 7 times greater than what naturally occurs in the blood. As tissue is repaired, inflammation and pain decrease and the muscles can move without tightness caused by pressure or swelling.
What Conditions Can Be Treated With PRP Therapy?
Although PRP therapy is a newer technique, the applications continue to expand and show long-term pain relief for many conditions. PRP can treat:
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- Neck and back injuries
- ALC injuries
- Ankle and ligament sprains
- Arthritis
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- Tennis elbow
- Plantar fasciitis
- Spinal injuries
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- Rotator cuff injuries
- Tendonitis
- Degenerative disc disease
- Osteoarthritis in knees, hips, and shoulders
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What Is A PRP Treatment Like?
PRP therapy is a treatment that uses blood from your body to create platelet-rich plasma. Because it is from your body, there is little to no risk of rejection or infection. A blood sample is taken, much like routine blood work, and the blood is placed in a centrifuge, which spins at high speed to separate the platelet-rich plasma from red blood cells and platelet-poor plasma.
The PRP is injected into the treatment area to help restore healthy tissue and reduce chronic pain. The remaining PRP can be used to concentrate additional healing proteins, like alpha 2 macroglobulin (A2M), for other benefits. Patients should avoid non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for two weeks before and after treatment and steroids for at least four weeks before and after treatment.
Not all PRP is the same, and PRP can vary based on the injection location, such as a joint versus a tendon or ligament. It is critical to work with a qualified doctor to determine if PRP is right for you and correctly administer the treatment for effective results. Dr. Ocasio has more than a decade of experience in anesthesiology, interventional pain management, and massage therapy and can expertly guide patients through PRP treatments for successful results.
How Soon Will I See the Benefits of PRP?
PRP therapy has many benefits that may include:
- Regenerating healthy tissue
- Delayed progression of osteoarthritis
- Reduced chronic pain and inflammation
- Generating more joint fluid to ease friction and joint pain
- Speeding up the natural healing process
Results vary by patient and can depend on the severity of the condition. Most patients feel results within 2-6 weeks after one injection, and more severe injuries or conditions can take up to one month to feel pain relief. Although the healing process begins within 24 hours after an injection, it can take time to make a noticeable difference.
Will PRP Give Me Lasting Relief from Pain?
While many patients see long-lasting results with one injection, it is possible to have multiple PRP injections to treat chronic pain and conditions and manage symptoms. Relief varies by patient, but many see results lasting up to 18 months. PRP can offer long-lasting results by stimulating the body’s natural regenerative processes to create new healthy cells and tissue.
Contact us to schedule a consultation and learn more about PRP therapy.
Why Choose North Shore Headache and Spine?
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INNOVATIVE TREATMENTS &
REGENERATIVE MEDICINE
With our in-office diagnostic imaging, dozens of innovative treatments, and full regenerative medicine service offerings, we are able to examine, diagnose, and treat patients experiencing chronic pain all under one roof.
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Long-Term
Integrative Philosophy
Instead of masking symptoms with a quick-fix approach, we focus on every lifestyle aspect to determine the root causes of pain and develop non-narcotic solutions.
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Deeply-Committed
Relationships
Our team values each and every one of our patients. We understand the toll that chronic pain takes on your physical and mental health, and we’re committed to listening to your concerns and creating the right treatent plan for you.
Pain Management Treatment Options
North Shore Headache and Spine offers the latest modalities for back and joint pain treatment, including, but not limited to:
Cellular therapy
Adding mesenchymal stem cells to your regenerative treatment can accelerate your recovery. Dr. Ocasio removes these stem cells directly from your own bone marrow and injects them back into your body along with bone marrow centrate which is rich in growth factors and cytokines that can help reduce inflammation and aid in regeneration.
Nerve Blocks
A nerve block delivers a combination of medication and an anesthetic directly into the space surrounding a damaged nerve to quickly relieve pain.
Central and Peripheral Stimulation
Central and peripheral nerve stimulation involves using electric devices to disrupt pain signals from damaged nerves.
RADIOFREQUENCY ABLATION AND CRYONEUROLYSIS
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a pain management treatment that uses heat to destroy tissue and prevent pain signals from being sent to the brain. Cryoneurolysis is a nerve-blocking technology to help reduce chronic pain due to nerve damage.
Epidural Blood Patch
An epidural blood patch treatment involves drawing the patient’s blood and re-injecting it into the epidural space to “patch” the tear or leak in the dura of the spine.
Intracept Basivertebral Nerve Ablation
The Intracept Procedure is a minimally invasive treatment that targets the basivertebral nerve, which is often responsible for lower back pain.
Epidural, Steroid, and Trigger Point Injections
Steroid injections, including epidurals and trigger point injections, introduce anti-inflammatory medications into your area of pain to simultaneously alleviate chronic pain and treat inflammation.