Transcription:
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) For Musculoskeletal Injuries

Melanie Cole (Host):  During the past several years, much has been written about a preparation called platelet rich plasma – or PRP – and its potential effectiveness in the treatment of injuries. Many famous athletes have received PRP for various problems, such as sprained knees and chronic tendon injuries. These types of conditions have typically been treated with medications, physical therapy or even surgery, but some athletes, however, have credited PRP with their being able to return more quickly to competition. My guest today is Dr. Katayoun Motlagh. She’s a board certified family practice physician and a member of the medical staff at Palmdale Regional Medical Center. What is PRP – platelet rich plasma? What is this?

Dr. Katayoun Motlagh (Guest):  Thank you for inviting me to RadioMD. PRP stands for platelet rich plasma. Basically, blood has multiple components. One of the components is platelets, which act like growth factors and stem cells. It helps in a lot of different ways to help heal different parts of the body and injuries. That’s what platelet rich plasma stands for.

Melanie:  Which conditions benefit most from PRP? What conditions can it treat?

Dr. Motlagh:  There's so many different things that can benefit from treatment with PRP. Most commonly it’s used in the orthopedic field, like tendonitis, arthritis, joint diseases, sport injuries, but it’s also used in cosmetic sales – for restoration of hair, for people who have hair loss for different reasons. In females and males, it’s used in rejuvenation of skin for improvement of wrinkling, volume loss, saggy skin, acne scarring or any kind of scarring given after surgeries like people who have keloids – keloids are a thickening of the skin after a procedure and they stand out really strong on the skin and takes a lot of attention. They can be treated to milden and soften their appearance of the skin. The acne scars can have a lot of pits and formations and it can make new collagen and flatten the pits in the skin, so it gives you smoother looking skin. It’s used in neurosurgery, it’s used in cancer treatments, it’s used in even sleep studies or sleep medicine. I've talked to ear, nose and doctors and surgeons who are actually involved in this interest and shown that they have injected this to the throat and they help them to lift the back of the throat to help with sleep apnea. Even for after surgeries to improve scars and healing and having better outcomes, it has been done post-surgically. A lot of times, it’s done before even surgery would be an option.

Melanie:  It sometimes has been touted as a natural treatment because it’s your own blood being returned to you. Tell us a little bit about the science of platelets, how they are being seen now as a healer and is this considered medicational intervention? Speak a little bit about the science of it.

Dr. Motlagh:  It is natural because it’s a person’s own blood. You can never use somebody’s blood for somebody else’s – it has to be used for the same person. Since this is taken from the same person’s blood, as a component of the blood, not the whole thing going back into their body in different sites, in my experience I've never had any problems or there's not medication involved, so there's no possible adverse reaction or allergic reaction to the treatment. It’s actually because of this growth factor, this healing process, this chance of having people get infections are very minimal because this is actually good for infection.

Platelets are derived from growth factors so one of the works of platelets are cell growth, new regeneration and repair of blood vessels. Other works that platelets can do is they work as a vascular endothelial growth factor, so basically the lining inside the blood vessels and can promote regeneration of that cell. You can think about it as if you have a new cell or new generation of something very new – like a new baby – and it has to grow again and age again. If you have a new cell or a new growth, like a stem cell, it works in different parts of your body, and generating new cells to aid you again. That’s basically how growth factors or platelets work. This is something that can be used as new medicine. It’s in the process of a lot of research. I would say very awesome outcomes are coming out whether they're FDA approved or they're going to now accept it in medicine – that’s in the future I guess – but the fact that it’s safe, nothing goes wrong with it, it helps people to make a decision to do this treatment and actually see their awesome results.

Melanie:  Tell us about the injections themselves. How are they administered and how often would someone need to have this done to feel results?

Dr. Motlagh:  Basically, we separate the platelets from the whole blood in way of a high centrifuge speed and when we get the platelets separated, we inject them back to where it’s needed. It depends if it’s a joint it goes into, like one injection. For hair growth, it might be involving hundreds of injections where the hair follicles. If it’s in the face, it could be hundreds of injections into the face. Obviously, there's really no pain with the treatments – the needles are very small and very well tolerated. I actually have done it myself with no medications. Very well tolerated, but it depends where you're aiming at. If it’s treating knee arthritis, it just involved one long needle injection like any other knee injections – like if somebody wanted to have a steroid injection to their joint. Again, for the face or the hair, it would be very small, superficial needles – for acne scars, it would very superficial injections. We use topical numbing medications or even oral medications and patients usually tolerate them really well.

Melanie:  How many sessions would somebody need to feel results?

Dr. Motlagh:  Everybody’s different. I think it depends on the entry or different types of treatments they're receiving. I would say that with one treatment, you see very good results within three weeks to three months. I usually tell my patients what you see at three months is what you get. After that, if you feel like you need more treatments, then you have to get another one at three months. I can give you a percentage, but let’s say we’re talking about for hair growth and baldness, I've seen hair growth within three weeks. I've seen improvements of the pain in tendonitis within two to three weeks – usually three weeks is the average time for seeing results.

Melanie:  In summary, what would you like to tell people who are suffering from chronic tendon injuries, acute ligament or muscle injuries, knee arthritis or any of the conditions that you mentioned about platelet rich plasma and what they should consider if they would like to look into this type of treatment?

Dr. Motlagh:  I would suggest that people should think about PRP as a first line treatment after exhausting physical therapy or medication for short term. If they have the capability of doing it sooner, it would be even better to heal faster than even going to physical therapy. It’s a natural way of treating your joints and there's usually no side effects to it. They're not going to lose anything. It would be their very best treatment first before any surgery considered, but if they're one of those patients that do have to have surgery and they're not a good candidate for PRP first – again, it’s different case by case – it would also benefit them after surgery because when they're healing, they prevent scar formation and actually the outcome of surgery could be better. I highly recommend PRP. I'm very passionate about it. I've seen awesome results. I have a lot of before and after pictures on my website if people would like to see actual patients, not just website pictures. They're welcome to look at it or ask questions – I'm happy to answer all those questions.

Melanie:  Thank you so much for being with us today. You’re listening to Palmdale Regional Radio with Palmdale Regional Medical Center. For more information, please visit palmdaleregional.com. That’s palmdaleregional.com. Physicians are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of Palmdale Regional Medical Center. The hospital shall not be liable for actions or treatments provided by physicians. Individual results may vary. There are risks associated with any procedure. Speak with your physician about these risks to find out if this procedure is right for you. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.