Summer Activities Can Cause Knee Pain

What is it about the summer months that seem to inspire people to get active? Sunshine, warm weather, and longer days may be three of the culprits. Or is it because we waited out the winter months being stuck indoors and isolated from everyone? Whatever the reason may be, we all have a tendency to want to leap into doing activities as soon as we can. But how many of us think about getting our muscles and joints in shape first?

Bicycling, running, hiking, and golfing are just some of the many summer activities that can put tremendous wear and tear on our muscles and joints, especially our knees. For avid athletes, performing these types of athletics on a regular basis can eventually lead to chronic knee pain. There is good news for people with chronic knee pain that doesn’t involve surgery.

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections are one type of therapy that is being used to treat a variety of tissue injuries like knee pain.The physicians at Innovative Pain & Spine Specialists in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska are experienced in treating patients with PRP injections. Understanding how PRP works and its benefits may help in deciding if PRP injections may be an option for you. 

How does PRP Work?

Your body has the ability to heal itself. Platelet-rich plasma is a type of regenerative medicine that uses the body’s healing abilities and enhances them to repair tissue in the body and reduce pain. 

Plasma is the liquid found in whole blood and is made up of water and proteins. It’s the pathway that allows red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets to move through the body. Platelets are the blood cells that cause blood to clot and perform other healing functions. 

The process to create the platelet-rich plasma starts by taking a small amount of the patient’s blood and placing it into a centrifuge that separates the different blood components into layers. The part of the blood known as the plasma that contains the high concentration of platelets is then isolated from this blood sample. This is then injected into the patient’s injured joint, tendon, ligament, or muscle.

What Conditions can be Treated with PRP?

Because of a patient’s own healing abilities, PRP injections have been effectively used to treat conditions such as:

  • Osteoarthritis
  • Tendonitis
  • Plantar Fasciitis
  • Bursitis
  • Tennis or Golfer’s Elbow
  • Rotator Cuff Injury
  • Shoulder Pain
  • Knee and Ankle Sprains

The pain medicine physicians at Innovative Pain & Spine will perform a comprehensive evaluation first to determine if PRP injections are an appropriate therapy to treat your pain.

Advantages of PRP Injections

Some of the advantages of PRP injections include:

  • Enhancing the healing process
  • Improving function
  • Minimizing pain
  • Reducing the use of anti-inflammatory or opioid medications
  • Having minimal side effects, if any

PRP injections can take on average from 8 to 12 weeks for a patient to notice full effects. 

Next Steps

If you or someone you know has been experiencing prolonged knee pain and you have tried other treatment options without results, it may be time to consider Platelet-rich Plasma Injections. The physicians at Innovative Pain & Spine Specialists in Lincoln and Omaha are here to provide the right solutions to get you back to performing the activities you enjoy. Give us a call at 402-413-5010 and let us help you.

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