Your ankles support your body and help you move. Whether you participate in professional sports or just love taking casual walks around your neighborhood, healthy ankles are important to your daily activity.
And that’s why ankle pain is so frustrating – it limits what we can do and where we can go.
At PRP Clinic at The Golab Center for Back & Joint Relief, we believe in helping you live a full life without any limitations. We offer platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections for patients with ankle pain. PRP is an emerging regenerative medicine therapy that helps you heal using your own blood.
Ankle pain is often due to sprain, but can also be caused by:1
Each of these causes can lead to different types of pain, which can come on suddenly or gradually. Your doctor will examine your ankle to determine the exact cause of your pain.
To treat ankle pain, your provider may recommend the following:2
Certain injuries or conditions may require surgery to repair your ankle, which always carries a level of risk. And while mild ankle injuries may not seem like they would need medical attention, there’s always the risk that they won’t heal properly. This can weaken your ankle, putting you at an increased risk of degenerative arthritis or chronic ankle pain.3
Conservative treatment like resting can help, but it can also make you feel unproductive or force you to take time off from work. If this sounds familiar, you may be a candidate for PRP therapy.
Platelets and plasma are two components of your blood. Plasma circulates blood cells and nutrients throughout your body, while platelets help your blood clot.
But platelets have another critical function: healing.
The growth factors, proteins, and signaling chemicals released from activated platelets play a crucial role in the healing and maintenance of joint health.
In a healthy person, the normal platelet count ranges from 150,000 and 350,000 cells/microliters of blood.4 Platelet-rich plasma, or PRP, therapy delivers a much higher concentration of platelets (at least 2 times that of whole blood) to the affected area to promote a healing cascade.
The high concentration of platelets found in PRP may help regulate:4, 5
The concentration of platelets can vary depending on individual patient characteristics, such as your age, medical conditions, and blood circulation.4 Your PRP treatment may also include other components of blood, such as leukocytes, a type of white blood cells. Talk to your provider about which type is best for you.
Even though regenerative medicine is still a developing field, PRP has emerged as a potential therapy for a wide range of medical applications because it’s so effective.
Let’s look at what some clinical studies found.
In one study, investigators treated 20 ankles of 20 patients with ankle osteoarthritis with PRP injections. When they followed up with the patients at 4, 12, and 24 weeks after treatment, they found significant pain reductions by 12 weeks. The patients with early-stage osteoarthritis fared better than those in the late-stage.6
A study published in the journal Foot and Ankle Surgery described the use of PRP in 21 patients with lateral ankle sprain. The researchers saw higher reduction in pain and better functional scores in the group treated with PRP than in those who weren’t.7
In another study, 106 patients with traumatic ankle arthritis were treated with either joint retraction surgery alone or a combination of PRP injections and surgery. Six months after the treatment, better joint function recovery and quality of life were reported in patients who received the combination therapy.8
Your provider will provide instructions on how to prepare for your appointment. Some medications like anticoagulants or NSAIDs may need to be stopped.
The entire PRP process, which includes preparation and injection, takes approximately 1 to 1.5 hours.
At PRP Clinic at The Golab Center for Back & Joint Relief, you can expect the following steps:
| Step One |
| A technician will draw a small sample of blood from you, which will be placed in a tube. |
| Step Two |
| The vial is placed in a centrifuge, which spins the blood at high speeds. This separates the platelets from the other blood components. |
| Step Three |
| We remove the tube from the centrifuge and separate the plasma layer from the other layers which are then discarded. |
| Step Four |
| Once the PRP solution is prepared, your provider will inject it into the affected area where the healing process begins. |
Because PRP triggers a cascade of biological responses, you may experience some soreness or swelling in the injection area for a few days. We recommend taking it easy for a few days after your treatment.
Because PRP is an autologous therapy (derived from your own blood), it has an outstanding safety profile. There is no risk of an adverse reaction or disease transmission. Talk to your provider if you’re taking any medications or if you experience any severe discomfort after your injection.
Ankle pain can keep you from enjoying the active life you love. But there is hope. PRP therapy can help you get your freedom back.
If you’re in the San Antonio, TX area and are suffering from ankle pain, call us today to learn how PRP can help you.
Call today to learn what PRP can do for you.
References:
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