Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP)

Dealing with chronic pain from osteoarthritis or a tendon, ligament, or muscle injury can disrupt your life and keep you from the activities you love.  

That’s why University of Iowa Health Care sports medicine physicians are leading the way in providing the latest, most innovative therapies available. 

This includes specialized training in administering platelet-rich plasma (PRP), a nonsurgical regenerative medicine treatment that uses your body’s own cells to treat injuries and function-related issues with arthritis. 

Using a high concentration of your own healing blood cells, PRP treatment helps to jump-start the healing process, providing relief and better management of your symptoms.   

For the first two weeks after the procedure, you will be advised to rest. After that, you will start your structured physical therapy and can start doing low-impact exercise. In about six weeks, you can start reincorporating higher-impact activities.    

Outcomes are going to be individualized based on multiple factors, such as the location and extent of the injury. However, you should be aware that it's going to be a slow, gradual healing process as opposed to immediate improvement.  

Patients often begin to notice improvement in 4-6 weeks, however, it may take up to three months for some.  

Surgical treatment for these types of conditions is also an option for people who do not respond to conservative care techniques, but surgery may not be as successful or as reliable as PRP.  

PRP is also less risky and less invasive than surgery. The recovery is significantly faster, and the effectiveness may be at least equal to surgery for many indications.