What Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy Is

Dr. Aiello describes platelet rich plasma therapy and its advantages over other therapies.

What Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy Is The platelet rich plasma, I consider it to be a state-of-the-art cutting edge type of prolotherapy where we actually do the similar techniques to prolotherapy where we inject into the ligaments and tendons of the joints. But we also instead of using the proliferant which is basically a thickened sugar water we use what we call the platelet-rich plasma in which we actually draw the patient’s blood and we spin it down in a centrifuge, specifically designed for this, and we are able to concentrate the platelets into a much higher amount, approximately five times normal. So may be someone has 200,000 platelets and we can get up to a million platelets per milliliter. Why is that important? The platelets have the growth factors in the body. The platelets have granules inside them that have growth factors that cause the ligaments and the tendons to heal. The platelets are, when someone sprains their ankle initially the platelets are the first part of the body from the blood to go into that injury and the platelets will then release granules which call in white cells. The granules will cause an increase in the blood vessel formation within the ligaments and tendons, and eventually the white cells clean up the damage, whatever is damaged in the ligaments. And then they call in stem cells and the stem cells are what come in and they differentiate into the fibroblasts and the elastoplasts that cause the tendons and the ligaments to thicken and heal stronger than they were before. So the platelet rich plasma causes that type of healing but also what is a big problem that causes tendons to not heal well is the fact that they do not have a good blood supply. And when we inject the platelets into that area the platelets have growth factors in them that actually create new blood vessels and new blood circulation into those ligaments and tendons that bring in new cells to heal and also take out the toxins that have accumulated over time. That’s why platelet-rich plasma is that much more potent. I consider it to be about five times as potent as the regular prolotherapy.