Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections, also known as PRP, have garnered significant attention for their remarkable results. PRP is derived from your body and uses natural healing mechanisms to alleviate joint pain, treat tendon injuries, and accelerate recovery. PRP uses a patient’s platelets by stimulating the body’s natural healing process and treats injured or diseased parts of the body, such as joints, ligaments, and tendons.
Ultrasound in Orthopedics
Ultrasound has become a game-changer in orthopedics, providing meaningful advantages and enhancing patient care. It has significantly enhanced the ability of physicians to provide bedside diagnoses and treatment of orthopedic problems without any radiation exposure. Safety and noninvasiveness are critical factors when making ultrasound a valuable tool for identifying issues like fluid buildup, tendinitis, and ligament and tendon tears.
Ultrasound-Guided PRP Injections
The introduction of ultrasound to direct and localize PRP injections to problematic areas makes clear visibility of problem areas much more manageable. Ultrasound-guided PRP injections improve the effectiveness of the treatment by providing better precision to the application. With its precision, ultrasound allows the clinician to visualize the injection site and deliver the injection with pinpoint accuracy to the injury during an in-office procedure. This level of precision, combined with its ability to visualize soft tissue structures, helps diagnose and treat musculoskeletal injuries more accurately and efficiently, enhancing patient care by combing treatments such as platelet-rich plasma. This non-invasive and cost-effective imaging technique is valuable for monitoring the progress of therapy and guiding interventions in real time. With the enhanced abilities of ultrasound technology in orthopedic applications, seeing is believing.
Would you like to learn more? Click here to view training videos on ultrasound in orthopedics. (link to SMU/transcend website)
Ultrasound-Guided Injections Evidence
Ultrasound imaging guidance is essential for successful platelet-rich plasma injections. To illustrate our point, we refer to Existing Evidence on Ultrasound-Guided Injections in Sports Medicine and have provided the compared accuracy findings below for common injections using ultrasound-guided and landmark-based techniques. The data speaks for itself.
According to the study, Daniels and others found ultrasound has become increasingly valuable for guiding joint and soft tissue injections like PRP. Numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the use of ultrasound-guided injections over traditional landmark-guided injections. After a comprehensive review of this literature, this abstract revealed increased accuracy of ultrasound-guided injections of multiple anatomic locations. Landmark-based accuracies often range in the low to mid-60s. Accurate results with ultrasound guidance are almost always guaranteed.
| Body Area | Ultrasound Guided Accuracy | Landmark Based Accuracy |
| Glenohumeral joint | 92% | 72% |
| Acromioclavicular joint | 90-100% | 17-72% |
| Biceps tendon | 87% | 27% |
| Elbow joint | 91% | 64% |
| Hands and wrist joints | 94-100% | 59-82% |
| Hip joint | 97-100% | 67-78% |
| Knee joint | 96-100% | 55-100% |
| Foot and ankle joints | 100% | 58-100% |
Ultrasound Can Improve Effectiveness
Ultrasound-guided PRP injections can improve the effectiveness of PRP treatments in several ways:
- Accuracy: Ultrasound imaging helps clinicians precisely target the damaged tissue that needs PRP, increasing accuracy and decreasing pain.
- Real-time adjustments: Ultrasound technology provides doctors the visibility to adjust the needle’s position in real-time.
- Stimulation: PRP injections speed up the healing process with high concentrations of platelets. These growth factors stimulate tissue healing, remodeling, and proliferation.
Ultrasound-guided injections assist PRP treatment by enabling clinicians to observe structures such as joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons in real time allowing for more accurate injection delivery, crucial for PRP therapy to heal ligament tears and joint pain. Ultrasound-guided injections can also avoid vital structures like nerves and blood vessels and ensure the PRP is injected precisely into the target injury, joint, or tissue. Furthermore, ultrasound images can be captured before and after the injection, providing visual evidence of the PRP’s healing effects.
Practices Can Leverage PRP Innovation
By understanding costs and potential revenue generation, practices can leverage an innovative treatment like PRP to boost their bottom line while providing patients exceptional value and improved care. With the incorporation of ultrasound-guided PRP injections, the effectiveness of the treatment, reduction of pain, faster recovery and improved patient function for musculoskeletal issues, can only be enhanced. The precision and accuracy offered by ultrasound guidance allow for targeted delivery of the PRP, leading to improved patient outcomes.
Comprehensive Treatment Approach
With the guidance of a highly experienced clinician, the risk of complications is minimized, ensuring that patients receive the utmost care and safety during the procedure. This approach aims to instill trust and confidence in patients seeking PRP therapy, making it an appealing and promising treatment option for medical practices and patients alike. Transcend Biologics comes alongside our customers and will walk through factors such as initial investment costs, marketing strategies, and patient education, all which play a role in maximizing the profitability of adopting PRP therapy. Medical practices can ensure a successful and lucrative PRP program by offering PRP services as part of a comprehensive treatment plan and effectively communicating the benefits to patients.
Transcend Biologics’ mission is to provide outstanding products and unsurpassed service that transcends to a new level of premium value to our customers. We proudly represent Wisonic’s Navi Series, a technological marvel that combines cutting-edge image resolution and system design with tablet-like ease of use. Wisonic’s team of experts brought the future of ultrasound technology to the present, and the Navi Series is the result. With its unparalleled imaging capabilities and advanced features, no other system on the market can match Navi’s performance and 19-inch touchscreen, the largest in the industry.
Key Features of the Wisonic Navi Series
- 19-inch touchscreen, industry’s most giant screen with multi-gesture
- Electric height adjustable; one-button height adjustment
- Whole-day duration battery; continuous scan for more than 7 hours, independent battery duration display, and retractable cord design
- wiNeedle™ Intelligent Enhance Real-time detection, automatic beam steer, intelligent needle shaft, and tip enhance
- Dedicated probe holder for disinfection
- wiLearn Education Center
- Smart button design available on multiple transducers
Daniels, Eldra W et al. “Existing Evidence on Ultrasound-Guided Injections in Sports Medicine.” Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine vol. 6,2 2325967118756576. 22 Feb. 2018, doi:10.1177/2325967118756576
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