PRP stands for platelet-rich plasma, which is created by taking blood and concentrating the platelets in plasma. Why do this? The platelets in your blood are responsible for clotting. They also have growth factors in them which help stimulate repair of the damaged tissue.

What are growth factors? Think of growth factors like espresso shots for local repair cells. They stimulate other cells to do more work and can even call the needed repair cells to the area. In the platelet, they live in packets called alpha granules.

Why Regenexx PRP Mixtures are Better than Standard PRP / Platelet-Rich Plasma

Much of this depends on what’s being treated. While the effects on joints can be quick, tendon or ligament treatment often takes longer to show results. In these types of treatments, most patients take 2-4 months to improve.

You can watch Dr. Centeno, the founder of Regenexx, give a good explanation of PRP recovery times in this video:

PRP is not covered by most health insurance plans, other than the Regenexx PRP procedures that are covered by some employer-sponsored health plans.

The outcomes research on PRP is getting more and more clear by the day. Here are the areas where we have very good research:

• Knee Arthritis – In a recent larger review of many different high-level studies, PRP was shown to be effective in treating knee arthritis. Some research shows that PRP tends to work better in patients with less severe arthritis, while another shows that the severity of arthritis makes no difference.
• Tennis Elbow – PRP injection has also been shown to be more effective than steroid shots in the treatment of tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis).
• Spine – PRP works better than steroid shots for the treatment of sacroiliac (SI) pain. PRP also helps patients with low back pain caused by bad and painful discs. PRP has also been shown to be more effective than steroid injections for facet joint pain.
• Achilles Tendinopathy – This one is a bit murkier, but the most recent research shows that PRP likely works for treating Achilles tendon pain. In addition, one study went so far as to take a small piece of the Achilles after injection treatment which showed better collagen structure in the PRP injected tendon than the one injected with placebo.

Other things PRP may be able to help include partial rotator cuff tears – (a small study has shown that PRP injection can help, but no high-level research has been done). Having said that, we routinely use high-dose LP-PRP to help these patients.

PRP is different from a stem cell injection.

Think of PRP as a stimulus for repair, sort of like an espresso shot for all of the local repair cells. Stem cells are like a general contractor for the repair job that can also turn into the brick and mortar needed. In general, we’ve found that PRP tends to work better for mild arthritis and partial ligament and tendon tears. However, bone marrow stem cells tend to be better at treating more severe arthritis and bigger tendon tears.