Platelet Therapy Gets To The Source Of Pain

The pain management experts at Metropolitan Pain Consultants use innovative Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) injections to help patients leverage the power of their own bodies for pain relief and faster recovery from injury.

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Metropolitan Pain Consultants

Jun 22, 2012, 04:48 ET

LYNDHURST, N.J., June 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- From 2012 Olympiads, to professional athletes, to weekend warriors, Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy is a hot new remedy for sports injuries and chronic pain conditions. Experts in Interventional Pain Medicine, the New Jersey (NJ) pain management doctors at Metropolitan Pain Consultants integrate PRP injections with other multi-modal pain relief strategies including nerve blocks, spinal injections, spinal cord stimulators, facet joint injections, and epidural steroid injections in addition to PRP injections.

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In recent years, PRP injection therapy has emerged as the latest course in pain relief and injury recovery, particularly in the fields of sports medicine and orthopedics. Using the patient's own blood cells, Platelet-Rich Plasma treatment is repeatedly proven effective in reducing pain and speeding recovery from conditions such as Tennis Elbow, Golf Elbow, Achilles tendon injuries, torn ACLs and other knee injuries, rotator cuff injuries, shoulder strain, tendonitis, and a wide range of muscle and ligament issues. PRP is also growing in popularity among those seeking arthritis pain relief.

But does PRP work? Dr. Richard Kang and the highly trained pain doctors at New Jersey's Metropolitan Pain Consultants believe it does, and not just because it's used by the likes of Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant. "PRP is highly effective not only at hastening rehabilitation but, in some patients, eliminating the need for surgery," says Dr. Kang.

What is PRP/Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy?
PRP therapy is part of a new wave in medicine focused on leveraging and fortifying the body's natural defenses. While the concept is innovative, the treatment itself is rather simple. Dr. Kang explains how it works, "During this very short procedure blood is drawn from the patient and spun through a centrifuge to separate the platelets from the red blood cells. That platelet-rich blood is then injected back into the patient at the site of the injury or the source of damage." The entire process takes 15 minutes and since there is no surgery involved, the risk of infection is drastically reduced, scarring is eliminated, and recovery from the minimal discomfort takes just days.

What Can My Platelets Do For Me?
Platelets have tremendous healing power and stimulate growth and stem cell repair in bone and soft tissue. PRP introduces such a high concentration of the patient's own platelets directly to the problem area triggering a regeneration that can be up to eight times faster than with physical therapy. Beyond accelerating natural healing, inflammation and pain are significantly reduced. "With PRP, we're seeing patients who are 3-4 weeks ahead of the traditional recovery process for their conditions," says Dr. Kang, "and patients who suffer from the disabling pain of arthritis are able to resume physical activities they once had to abandon."

PRP has two main applications. For athletes, faster healing can get them back in the game up to a month sooner; particularly important to those with a short playing season. For others, like arthritis sufferers, repeat injections can serve as a highly effective ongoing therapy for pain relief. "It's really a fast track for the body's own healing mechanisms. It's not magic, but it does work very well for some patients," says Dr. Kang.

Platelet-Rich Plasma therapy is one of the many pain management procedures provided by the experts at Metropolitan Pain Consultants. Visit www.njmetropain.com to meet their pain experts and learn more about their layered approach to pain relief and pain management. Located in Lyndhurst, NJ and Englewood Cliffs, NJ their offices are easily accessible from Fort Lee, NJ, Hackensack, NJ, Paramus, NJ, Passaic, NJ, Teaneck, NJ, and Tenafly, NJ.