What is Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)?

Platelet rich plasma or PRP is an "autologous blood therapy" that uses the patient's own blood components to stimulate a healing response in damaged tissues. In response to an injury or tissue damage, your body naturally recruits platelets and white blood cells from the blood to initiate a healing response. Under normal conditions, platelets store numerous growth factors which are released in response to signals from the injured tissue. Modern technology allows us to concentrate platelets and white blood cells from your blood, and induce this growth factor release as we inject the healing solution directly into the injured tissue, stimulating this same healing response in a more powerful form. By enhancing the body's natural healing capacity, the treatment may lead to a more rapid, more efficient, and more thorough restoration of the tissue to a healthy state.

Procedure:

Blood is drawn from your arm and placed in a special processing unit which separates platelets, white blood cells and serum from red blood cells. The platelets and white blood cells are then placed in a sterile syringe. The skin is then anesthetized with a local anesthetic. This is followed by injection of both the PRP and activator into the tissue targeted for treatment.

Depending on your condition, one to three PRP injections are needed. In general acute problems usually require one treatment. Chronic problems require two or three treatments.

Safety:

PRP treatments are extremely safe , with minimal risk of any adverse reactions or complications. Since PRP is produced from your own blood, there is no concern for rejection or disease transmission.

Dr. Hagen has been using this advanced treatment for many foot, ankle and leg related problems and has had excellent results.