Can Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy Help After An MCL Injury?

19 Jun Can Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy Help After An MCL Injury?

Any kind of knee injury can be devastating, but ACL and MCL tears are some of the worst. They can limit a person’s mobility while it heals, preventing them from doing the things they love. These tears have a very long recovery period, and the chance that it will be re-torn is high. Platelet-rich plasma can return the body’s natural healing properties to the knee, returning it to normal function.

What Is An Injured MCL?

An MCL injury is a sprain, partial, or full tear of the medial collateral ligament. The MCL is the band of tissue on the inside of your knee. It connects your thighbone to the bone of your lower leg. The MCL keeps the knee from bending inward, stabilizing it during motion. You can hurt your MCL during activities that involve bending, twisting, or a quick change of direction. It can be injured during sports games, intense physical activities, and leisure sports.

What Is Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy?

Blood is made up of plasma and blood cells. It mostly contains plasma, but the smaller part holds all of our white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Platelets are best known for clotting the blood after an injury. But they also contain growth factors that heal muscles, tendons, and tissue. Platelet-rich plasma has nearly 10 times the regular amount of platelets in your blood. The platelets are taken from the patient’s own blood, by centrifuging blood to separate the plasma layer from the other cells. Then these platelets are concentrated into an injection for your knee. The increased concentration of growth factors into injured muscle and tissue helps speed up the healing process. This treatment can benefit trauma-related injuries, and help speed up the healing process after MCL surgery.

How Can Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy Help My Injured MCL?

Recent studies have focused on the use of platelet-rich plasma therapy in injured athletes who have torn their ACL or MCL. They found that using this therapy at the same time as other methods of pain management, and physical therapy, greatly increased the time of recovery.