Platelet Rich Plasma Injection Procedures
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) contains proteins and healing growth factors from your own blood. These increase your body’s natural ability to repair itself. PRP acts a as “fertilizer” or “espresso shot” to your own natural stem cells within an injured area, to help them work faster or more efficiently. The use of PRP to repair joint, tendon, ligament, and muscle injuries has gained widespread awareness, due to substantial amounts of growing research and public awareness from the successes reported by professional athletes. Platelet injections have a stimulating effect on the stem cells within the injured area, making those stem cells work harder to heal damaged tissues. Some studies show comparable results for PRP injections and stem cell injections, yet PRP costs only a fraction of what stem cell injections do at most clinics.
Using our platelet procedure technique, we are able to generate a very highly concentrated amount platelets procedures to maximize the effectiveness. These types of procedures are commonly used for soft tissue injuries and mild to moderate arthritis. Because tendons typically do not have a lot of blood flow, they are prone to develop chronic pain from repetitive use and strain. Our board certified sports medicine physician, Dr. Michael Campbell MD, CAQSM, uses diagnostic ultrasound to guide the injection into the precise location needed to help ensure the best chance of success.
Process
The first step is to determine if you are a good candidate for PRP therapy, or if another avenue of care may be more appropriate first. This involves a thorough history and examination. We want to review any x rays or MRI studies that you may have had. The goal of this is to confirm the diagnosis and this may be done with clinical testing and/or diagnostic sonography. A baseline functional evaluation will also be performed to see what underlying problems may be present that need to be addressed before or after the PRP procedure to ensure the highest probability for a good outcome following your PRP procedure. We do not want to perform PRP procedures on patients that we honestly feel do not have a high probability of having a good outcome. We constantly review the latest medical literature to make evidence informed decisions and so we can give patients the highest quality information to make informed decisions about their care.
If it is determined that you are a good candidate for PRP, we will schedule your procedure for the first Tuesday following your visit. We typically start our PRP procedures around 4:45 PM on Tuesdays. A single site injection visit will typically take approximately 45 minutes. After check-in, our skilled nurse will draw the blood sample needed for your procedure. Next, our advanced centrifuge system will “spin” for about 20 minutes, separating your platelet rich plasma from the platelet poor plasma and the red blood cells.
We are able to create custom concentrations of platelets, white cells, and red cells to best suit the purpose of the procedure and the type of tissue being injected. The target location is verified with a quick ultrasound exam and mark the skin. Next, the site will be prepped and sterilized and a local anesthetic delivered. Finally, the PRP will be injected under ultrasound guidance into the target tissue.
After the procedure, our staff will go over the recovery plan for the first 10-14 days. Most of the time, we encourage normal daily activity, but may restrict certain exercises and movements to allow the PRP activated stem cells time to start a healing process. We believe that the post procedural rehabilitation is the secret to the best possible outcome following any kind of regenerative procedure, and especially PRP. Post-procedure, we create a custom recovery exercise and therapy plan specific to your condition.
Download a patient educational brochure explaining more about our advanced centrifuge here .
Cost
Our PRP services are extremely cost effective in comparison to the cost of stem cell injections locally at $8,500 per injection, and with the average PRP cost in Manhattan from $1,200-1,500. Our mission is to deliver quality, affordable, cutting edge evidence-informed care to the residents of the Manhattan area. Therefore, our fee schedule for PRP is:
Single site PRP injection: $850.00
Two site PRP injection: $1,150.00
Three site PRP injection: $1,400.00
Four site PRP injection: $1,750.00
We have seen many cases of patients that have undergone stem cell procedures in other facilities that have not had the desired outcomes. With retrospective review, many are patients we never would have recommended to risk such large amounts of money given their clinical picture. In light of the current literature, we feel in many cases, we can achieve comparable outcomes with PRP and good rehabilitation at a substantial financial savings to the patient in comparison to stem cell procedures.