We have all heard of athletes who have serious, career-ending injuries, and we have heard stories of miracle recoveries after surgery and rehab.
What you may not know is that a torn ligament or damaged tendon, or other joint injuries can actually be treated without pain medication, invasive surgeries.
Advances in treatment options allow medical professionals to use the body’s own healing processes to promote the renewal of the damaged tissue, avoid the problems associated with surgery and recovery, and heavy pain medication.
What is a sports injury?
There are several types of sports injuries, but the most common are the following:
Strains: This is the most common sports injury because the movements athletes engage in during competition use so many different muscle groups. Because the tendons and muscles that provide motion are supposed to stretch, sometimes they can be strained, causing bruising or pain. Common muscle strains are hip flexors, quads, and hamstrings. When tendons are strained, you can develop tendonitis.
Sprains: When ligaments are overstretched, it is called a sprain. Joints such as the ankle, knee, and wrist can suffer sprains when twisted past their normal parameters. This can also lead to conditions such as “tennis elbow,” which is a repetitive stress injury to a ligament.
Tears: Tendons, ligaments, and cartilage can be torn while playing sports. Some of the modest common tears happen in the knees and shoulders and are often ligaments such as the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL). Back pain can result when discs become herniated, and severe damage to the knee can happen when cartilage like the meniscus is torn.
Sciatica and neuropathy: Sports injuries can lead to pinched or impinged nerves or other nerve damage such as sciatica, which radiates from the spine down into the legs. Athletes can also develop peripheral neuropathy, or a sensation of numbness, burning, or tingling in the extremities.
How Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) treatment can help
Most of these injuries are due to tissue damage, and there are treatments that provide relief for this cause rather than treating the symptoms.
While rest, ice, and elevation can help with inflammation, the real damage to the connective tissues or nerves needs to be addressed in order for a complete recovery.
In PRP treatment, the medical team takes blood from the patient and uses a centrifuge to create a concentrated solution of the patient’s own platelets.
These cells’ primary job is to promote healing and renewal in primary tissue by communicating with surrounding cells. When injected at the site of an injury, the platelets can help the damaged tissue recover by encouraging cellular growth and renewal.
The myth of all sports injuries requiring invasive surgery and months of recuperation is false, and PRP is one path to healing that avoids these costly and painful methods.