How a PRP Injection Uses Your Own Blood to Promote Healing

Content medically reviewed by: Elizabeth Baillargeon, MD

Imagine a treatment that uses components of your own blood to jumpstart healing and recovery. That’s exactly what platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections do. This innovative therapy has gained widespread attention—not just from professional athletes like Tiger Woods, but also for anyone seeking effective solutions for musculoskeletal issues.

While PRP might sound like a modern breakthrough, the treatment has actually been around for decades. Originally used to infuse donor platelets into the blood of those with low platelet levels, PRP injections have evolved into a powerful tool to help you use your own blood to recover from orthopedic conditions.

What Are PRP Injections?

PRP injections are considered biologic medicines because the injection you receive is made from your own blood.

Blood contains multiple components, including plasma (the liquid part of blood), red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.

“Each component in your blood has an important function in the body, but when it comes to healing, platelets play a particularly key role,” said Dr. Elizabeth Baillargeon, a physiatry physician with Essentia Health. “They contain proteins called growth factors, which help stimulate the healing process. That’s why we believe they may help treat certain musculoskeletal conditions.”

Platelets are also essential to the blood-clotting process, clumping together to form blood clots that stop bleeding.

PRP is plasma that contains a much higher concentration of platelets than your blood usually does. With its higher platelet concentration, PRP contains more growth factors, which can help heal injured tissues.

What Happens During a PRP Injection

Before you can have a PRP injection, the PRP has to be prepared.

First, your blood is drawn. Then, the platelets it contains are separated from other blood components through a process called “centrifugation,” which also increases the concentration of platelets.

This process spins blood at high speed, separating and dividing its components. When it finishes, a layer of platelet-poor plasma is removed, leaving PRP behind. In some cases, PRP may undergo a second spin before injection, further increasing the platelet count.

Once PRP is ready, it’s injected into the injured tissues in the same way you’d receive a vaccine or a steroid injection.  

How Does a PRP Injection Work?

Researchers aren’t entirely sure why or how PRP helps with healing—they only know that it does in some cases.

Ongoing research suggests that these injections may benefit the healing process by encouraging cell turnover and stimulating collagen production. The injections also affect inflammation. They can cause short-term inflammation in the body’s tissues, which triggers the healing process, but they also act as anti-inflammatories, reducing inflammation in the long run.

When a PRP Injection Might Help You

PRP injections give sports medicine providers another nonsurgical tool for treating some sports injuries. According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), PRP injections may be a helpful treatment to reduce pain and stimulate healing for those with –

• Acute injuries to ligaments or muscles
• Chronic tendon injuries, including tennis elbow
• Knee osteoarthritis

PRP injections used to treat these conditions may relieve pain and other symptoms for up to a year as healing occurs.

The AAOS also notes that PRP injections have been used during orthopedic surgeries to help tissues heal. Research so far, though, hasn’t shown a significant benefit to using PRP during surgery.

Key Takeaways

Platelet-rich plasma, which has long been used to help treat conditions causing low platelets in the blood, also offers promise in treating some conditions affecting the musculoskeletal system.

Doctors may also recommend PRP injections as a treatment option for chronic tendon problems, acute injuries affecting the muscles and ligaments, and knee osteoarthritis, which causes damage to the knee joint.

Before a PRP injection, blood is drawn from the patient, then centrifuged to separate platelets from other blood components and concentrate them in the plasma. The platelet-rich plasma is then injected into injured tissues, stimulating healing.