"When I tore my rotator cuff in  I had conventional laparoscopic surgery to repair it. The outcome was excellent but the recovery was long and horrible. The orthopedist wouldnt let me drive for six weeks or run swim or lift weights for three months. I suffered through weeks of torturous physical therapy. It was nearly six months before I felt normal again. So in  after a nurse improperly administered a vaccination that resulted in chronic pain and an MRI revealed another rotatorcuff tear I vowed I would not go through shoulder surgery or its aftermath again.  Cortisone injections and physical therapy didnt help so I decided to try something else plateletrich plasma a therapy that uses the bodys natural healing properties to mend injuries. Its practitioners believe it will transform orthopedics. Based on my experience with it I think they are right. It may not work for every condition or for everyone. But it worked for me. PRP therapy is popular for sports injuries but does it work https_story.htmltida_inl  Before undergoing PRP treatment I read quite a bit about it learning that it holds promise for healing softtissue injuries such as tearing of the rotator cuff the group of tendons and muscles that provide stability to the shoulder tennis elbow plantar fasciitis Achilles tendinitis patella tendinitis and hamstring tears it may even provide relief for mild to moderate osteoarthritis. PRP works and the results have been amazing says John Ferrell the sports medicine physician who treated me. There still needs to be more research done to perfect the process but it will change the way orthopedics is practiced in the future. We will be more preventive. We will be able to treat ailments noninvasively and at an earlier stage. The procedure involves collecting several ounces of blood from a patients arm spinning the blood in a centrifuge to concentrate the platelets and injecting the concentrated platelets into the injury site to stimulate healing. Platelets the blood cells that promote clotting contain hundreds of proteins called growth factors that are important in repairing injuries. PRP works by acting like a stemcell magnet says Ferrell who practices at Regenerative Orthopedics  Sports Medicine which has several offices in the Washington area. It releases growth factors that signal stem cells to come and help regenerate the injured area. Rotatorcuff tendon partial tears are notorious for not healing because of the poor blood supply there. PRP actually creates new blood vessels that feed the tendon the proper nutrients it needs to heal. A recent pilot study httpjournals.plos.orgplosonearticleid.journal.pone. conducted at the Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic at the University of Alberta on rotatorcuff tears supports this. It showed tissue healing in five of seven of the patients who received PRP as well as improvements in their pain and function. The researchers call the results clinically relevant despite the studys small size and say the next step should be a larger controlled clinical trial. Ive heard some skeptics call PRP a cure looking for a disease but it is being used in so many areas of medicine now with promising outcomes says Marni Wesner a sports medicine physician at the clinic and one of the studys authors. The potential for benefit from PRP is real.  I had my first appointment with Ferrell last October to find out whether PRP might help me. By then my painful shoulder had been keeping me up nights for more than a year. It bothered me while swimming and lifting weights and while getting dressed. By performing several tests to assess my strength and range of motion Ferrell discovered that my left shoulder  the site of the tear  was considerably weaker than my right.  He then used ultrasound to find the tear and showed it to me on a monitor. It turned out to be larger than indicated in the static MRI pictures I had obtained earlier. Before deciding whether PRP was right for me he had to be sure that the tear was the source of my pain and weakness. He injected an anesthetic into the tear then he ran the strength tests again. My strength was significantly better. This meant that the tear was causing my problems and fixing it probably would restore strength and function to my shoulder and end my pain. I had the first PRP injection on Oct. . It was painful and the aching persisted for about  hours. I had one bad night followed by an uncomfortable day. After that the pain stopped. Still Ferrell advised me to baby the shoulder  to use my other arm when holding a dog leash and to skip swimming and weights for two weeks. Running was fine. He also recommended physical therapy after two weeks. After what I went through in  those were restrictions I could live with. Ferrell told me not to use nonsteroidal antiinflammatories such as ibuprofen for a week after the injection because the goal is to encourage not stifle inflammation. Other pain relievers such as acetaminophen were okay. We want to stimulate an acute inflammatory reaction which will trigger the healing cascade to start to work Ferrell says. Because there is not yet enough research on PRP  and because some studies have shown mixed results  insurance will not cover it. Still it has significant cost savings compared with surgery Ferrell says. The average treatment is two injections which costs about  at his practice whereas rotatorcuff surgery runs about  he says although insurance often covers most of the costs of surgery. With additional research insurance may ultimately pay for PRP. Unfortunately there is little financial incentive to conduct such studies because there is nothing for the Food and Drug Administration to approve such as a drug or device. The centrifuges already are licensed and the procedure uses a patients own blood which is regarded as safe. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons  which says PRP holds great promise  describes the risk as minimal. Those who seek this treatment must look for a clinician with considerable PRP experience  someone who does the procedure several times a day not once or twice a month  and who has a good success rate Ferrell says. Moreover you see the greatest results when the injections are done under direct visualization with ultrasound he adds. By February the ultrasound showed my tear to be about  percent healed. The remaining tear was quite small. Ferrell recommended a second injection to finish the job. I had it on March . When I returned to see him on April  I was feeling pretty good. No pain no problems. He rolled in the ultrasound machine and I was not surprised by the results. The tear was completely gone."