What Is Regenerative Injection Theraphy?
Regenerative Injection Therapy (RIT) – The “alternative to joint surgery”, is spectrum of treatments performed by a licensed physician for various musculoskeletal injuries and chronic pain. When you injure tissue, it sends a signal to your body to start the healing process. During the healing process, your body removes damaged tissue and replaces it with new, healthy tissue, which is typically perceived as pain, swelling, and redness.
Often times, we do things to impede the healing process, which results in the injury not healing completely.
RIT seeks to replicate the normal tissue healing process by injecting different substances into the injured tissue that stimulates your body’s own natural ability to heal.
RIT offers a safe and effective alternative to steroid injections and/or surgery. Injuries and conditions commonly treated with RIT include:
- Ligament injuries
- Tennis / Golfer’s elbow
- ACL / PCL / Meniscus injuries
- Osteoarthritis
- Shoulder / Rotator cuff injuries
- Back pain
- Sport injuries
- And more...
How Does Regenerative Injection Theraphy Work?
During the procedure, your doctor injects various orthobiologics into the areas needing attention (i.e. into joint and tissue surrounding the joint). This solution increases the flow of blood and nutrients to the site of the injection and stimulates the body’s natural healing process to start repairing and regenerating the tissues.
Types Of Regenerative Injection Therapies
Prolotherapy – The word “prolo” comes from proliferation, which means regeneration or growth of tissues. Prolotherapy refers to injections performed to the joint and/or surrounding tissue with different solutions, the most common being a simple mixture of procaine or lidocaine (anesthetic) and dextrose (“sugar water”).
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) – PRP works by injecting a concentrate of the patient’s own platelets into the affected area. Platelets contain many of the growth factors necessary for normal tissue repair and regeneration (think of a “cut” healing). To obtain the PRP, the patient’s blood is drawn, similar to a routine blood test, and is placed into a special centrifuge machine. This creates a plasma that contains a very high concentration of the patient’s own platelets and growth factors, which help to accelerate tissue repair and regeneration.
What Happens After Treatment?
After your injection, it is normal to see some inflammation. This is your body’s natural healing process taking place, accelerated by Regenerative Injection Therapy. The number of treatments varies depending on each case, but on average 3 – 4 treatments are required. Most patients tolerate the injections with no problems. Your doctor will advise you on when to you can return to a normal level of physical activity, but typically there is little to no “down time”.
Did You Know?
PRP Injections may help you get your game back. Current and former professional athletes, such as Tiger Woods, Troy Polamala (Pittsburgh Steelers) and Alex Rodriguez (New York Yankees) all received PRP injections to help heal their various sports-related injuries.
Every Journey Starts With One Step
Take Your First Step Today
We invite you to schedule a free, no obligation “Discovery Meeting” to meet our doctors, or Personal Physicians as we like to say. In this meeting they will discuss your health goals, treatment options, and answer any of your questions.
