Sports Medicine Doctor Explains Platelet-Rich Plasma Treatment For Injured Tendons

In this video, Dr. Brian C. Halpern, a Sports Medicine Doctor at Hospital for Special Surgery, explains the theory of how Platelet-Rich Plasma therapy may help treat injured tendons and other soft tissue injuries, including Tennis and Golfer’s Elbow

This is a fairly short and sweet (only 3 minutes) explanation and demonstration of the theory on PRP and the application of the procedure, including:

The drawing of blood from a patient,
The centrifuging (spinning) of the blood to separate it,
And the re-injecting of the concentrated platelets.
(The injection is made into the patient’s injured area, in this case a man with Tennis Elbow)

“And those platelets in turn release your own growth factors, that you have, and those growth factors are what you use to heal tissue, and we have basically ‘rebooted’ your ‘healing computer’… Nobody rejects their own blood!”
– Dr. Brian C. Halpern

Doctor Halpern goes on to say that PRP can “definitely help” patients with chronic Tendonitis / Tendinosis abnormalities like Tennis Elbow, Golfer’s Elbow and Rotator Cuff injuries, (which seems like a very strong claim.)

If you’d like to see more of the technical process of the PRP being prepared, see this longer, more detailed (and graphic) video, also of a Tennis Elbow patient receiving PRP injection therapy:

PRP Injection Therapy Procedure Demo Video

And don’t miss my full-length post, citing some of the research and looking into the pros and cons of this fascinating, new treatment:

Platelet-Rich Plasma For Tennis Elbow: Does It Work?

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