Consolidating Your Practice Offer and Revenues with Platelet Rich Plasma
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) sometimes referred to as Autologous (using patient’s own blood) is exactly that,
a component harvested from someone’s blood whereby a high number of platelets are concentrated. Blood is made up of red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma and platelets. Platelets are known to aid in the healing process of all wounds and therefore the regeneration of cells. New data show that platelets release large doses of bioactive proteins, known as growth factors responsible for attracting macrophages, mesenchymal stem cells and osteoblasts which promote the removal of necrotic tissue and enhance tissue regeneration and repair.
The PRP procedure is relatively quick. To develop a PRP preparation, 17 cc of the patient’s blood is drawn, then placed into our kits and then into a FDA cleared centrifuge device which is then spun at 1300 RCF 9 minutes (approx 2700 RPM). The centrifuge is used to separate the PRP from PPP and RBC components. After the blood has been separated and extracted into a syringe, the physician will then inject the concentrated PRP into the site of the patient’s injury. The PRP injection takes less than 1 hour including the preparation and recovery time. Dependent upon the injury location and severity, as well as the varied response from patient to patient, the number of injections recommended may vary from a single injection up to 3–5 treatments. However, since PRP is regenerative and autologous, there is no limit on the number of treatments.
Doctors have used PRP therapy since the mid-1990s to aid bone healing after spinal injury and soft tissue recovery following plastic surgery, it has only been in the past few years that the treatment has caught on for treatment of sports-related injuries. “PRP treatment really gained speed January 2009. It got press that two of the Pittsburgh Steelers [Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu] used it before [winning] the Super Bowl. More and more patients started to ask about it,” says Dennis A. Cardone, a doctor of osteopathic medicine at the New York University (N.Y.U.) Hospital for Joint Diseases. Cardone has treated 30 amateur athletes with PRP therapy over the past year.
Many of the athletes may have a type of tendonitis, [such as] Achilles tendonitis or, say, patellar tendonitis in the knee or tennis elbow. Many of these tendon injuries become chronic, and involve microscopic tearing of the tendon and formation of scar tissue. A reason why it’s difficult to heal these tendon injuries is related to poor blood supply to the region. The perfect example would be the Achilles. It’s a tendon with, in general, a poor blood supply, so when there are these microscopic tears or chronic scarring, the body has a difficult time healing it. The theory is that the body can’t on its own get enough of these healing or growth factors to the area, but now this concentrated platelet injected there just enhances the nutrients and growth factors to allow the body to heal it.Consolidating Your Practice Offer and Revenues with Platelet Rich Plasma
If you currently are not offering PRP to your patients then there is no better time than now to get started. For more information on this and other Ancillary Medical Solutions, contact us and we will have one of our Certified Ancillary Consultants contact you.