Sports Medicine strategy for San Francisco Bay Area Dogs: Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)

San Francisco Bay Area Dogs have access to many of the key and natural strategies being used for athletic, joint and soft tissue injuries. A key therapeutic option for the injured canine patient (with joint, tendon, ligament or other soft tissue injury) now includes Platelet Rich Plasma therapy (PRP). Dogs with hereditary problems such as elbow dysplasia (a condition in which the elbow does not articulate properly leading to pain and inflammation) or acquired disorders such as crippling osteoarthritis can benefit from PRP. Tendons and injured ligaments, which heal very slowly, can be coaxed into healing much more quickly with Platelet Rich Plasma therapy.

PRP is a therapy that uses the patient's own blood that when collected and processed, is separated from its red and white blood cell components to yield Platelet Rich Plasma. PRP is then injected into injured areas to jump start healing and regeneration of tissues. All of this can be performed without worry of infection or disease as it is the patient's OWN PRP that is used for the purpose.

Platelets are remarkable little disc shaped cell fragments that are produced in the bone marrow along with red and white blood cells. Their primary purpose is for clot formation when there has been blood vessel injury and for stimulation of repair of damaged blood vessels. Platelets are loaded with at least 250 Growth Factors and Cytokines that trigger healing and tissue regeneration when injected into damaged tissues elsewhere in the body.

Once delivered to an area of interest or injury PRP stimulates a mild inflammatory response which attracts migrating macrophages. The macrophages get busy cleaning up cellular debris and get the injured area ready for healing. Blood vessels starting growing to provide nutrition, stem cells are attracted and begin differentiating into needed tissue types and fibroblasts arrive and start building the scaffolding for tissues to regenerate.

Numerous orthopedic and soft tissue conditions benefit from the delivery of Platelet Rich Plasma.The collection and processing of blood for the                                       enrichment of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) can take as little as 30 minutes.

Veterinary Healing & Advanced Imaging offers Platelet Rich Plasma therapy for pets at it's Pleasant Hill, CA location. Convenient to Bay Area freeways 680, 24 and 242, Veterinary Healing & Advanced Imaging performs PRP infusions for dogs and cats on an outpatient basis. 

Platelet Rich Plasma 3 minute video