Growth factors are proteins found in all cells of the organism, the richest of which are blood platelets. They are in an inactive state, when there is an external aggression they are activated and their function is to stimulate the regeneration of organic tissues in general, but in addition, in recent years it has been discovered that they have a very important anti-inflammatory action.
Applications of growth factors
The most common applications are in knees and hips, but also in tendinosis of the shoulders or other locations and, lately, in the spine. Any degenerative, articular, muscular or tendon problem.
The technique consists of drawing a small amount of blood, which is usually like an analysis, and centrifuging it to separate the plasma from the red blood cells. The platelet-rich plasma is recovered and we obtain the cells that bring more growth factors, but which are inactive.
The activation of the growth factors is produced by adding calcium chloride, which the body already produces naturally when there is trauma, but which we have to apply to produce the activation, and this plasma with the activated factors is applied to the area we want to treat. It is a very simple technique, even more so, because now it can be done in the same act, the patient’s blood is drawn, it is centrifuged, the whole process is followed and the application is done.
Duration of treatment
Experience indicates that when treating large joints, especially load-bearing joints: knees and hips, the way to obtain the best response is to do four applications with 3-4 weeks of rest between each of the first three applications, and after two months we do the fourth session, which we call a reminder. In other locations the most frequent is three applications.
Benefits of growth factors
Rheumatologists try to delay or avoid surgery. We try to vary the evolution of the degenerative processes of the tendon or cartilage, which we know that when they start to progress they do not stop, and we try to modify this evolution to make the cartilage more resistant. Another objective is to improve the patient’s symptomatology, reducing inflammation and pain.