Persistent elbow pain caused by bursitis can greatly affect your daily life. Although the elbow joint is primarily designed to move in one direction, it remains susceptible to various injuries.
Bursitis, the inflammation of the bursa, can cause excess fluid secretion, resulting in a lump and severe pain. This pain can be frustrating and limits your ability to perform daily activities.
Similar to other elbow injuries, limited traditional treatments for elbow bursitis can induce a healing process lasting 18 months or more. It is due to the limited blood supply to the damaged area and the low regenerative ability of tendons.
Sometimes, patients may undergo surgical procedures to address and remedy their pain’s source directly. Nevertheless, such procedures often carry a risk of complications. Fortunately, innovative and advanced regenerative medicine treatments are available for elbow bursitis, which can offer a pain-free life without the potential complications associated with surgery.
Advanced Regenerative Treatment Options
Amidst the limitations, the advancements in the orthopedics field go beyond traditional treatment options. Studies have revealed that the rise of advanced regenerative treatment options tends to induce prompt recovery from pain by repairing the injured or damaged tissues naturally.
Numerous regenerative medicine treatment options serve as a great alternative to surgical procedures. This minimally invasive approach ensures the highest success rates with slow recovery time. Read on to know more!
What Exactly is Regenerative Medicine?
Regenerative medicine encompasses an innovative approach that stimulates the natural healing abilities of the human body. The treatment focuses on repairing and regenerating damaged cells, tissues, or organs. The ultimate goal of regenerative medicine in elbow bursitis is to address the root cause of the problem and manage the symptoms by improving the condition.
The most common regenerative approaches are platelet-rich plasma therapy and stem cell therapy. Unlike conservative methods, regenerative medicine will improve the health of the tissue and make them grow stronger, enhancing the health of the entire musculoskeletal system.
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) Therapy is a safe, popular, and effective treatment option for people with persistent bursitis pain and other inflammatory musculoskeletal conditions. The injection used in PRP will be derived from your blood, which can naturally induce your body’s healing process.
According to recent research, athletes have reported that they can recover promptly and return to their sports activities from PRP therapy with lesser risks. It is usually recommended when patients have a positive outcome or short-term pain relief from non-surgical methods and steroid injection therapy.
How to Perform PRP therapy for Elbow Bursitis?
The simple procedure of PRP therapy will take approximately 30 minutes. Your blood sample will be collected and placed in the centrifuge in the initial stage. When the equipment is processed, the equipment will separate the platelet-rich plasma from the RBC (Red blood cells).
Then the healthcare professional will extract the highly concentrated platelet-rich plasma and inject it into the exact injured area using ultrasound. Generally, two injections are recommended two weeks apart to get the best results for bursitis.
Platelets are blood cells that stimulate blood clotting and allow wounds to heal naturally. The proteins in the PRP are known as growth factors that help prompt the healing of damaged tissue and decrease pain.
Evidence for PRP therapy
Multiple trials are made to support the use of PRP in elbow bursitis. In certain research, PRP is considered a novel and promising treatment modality for elbow pain with fewer side effects and positive outcomes.
A review from Cochrane has found that PRP was similar to the placebo and other types of injection therapy. Moreover, the type of PRP considered is also crucial. For instance, leukocyte-rich PRP gives better results than leukocyte-poor injection for elbow pain.
Benefits of PRP therapy
- Heal Several Injuries
Elbow bursitis is commonly caused due to sports-related injuries that affect joints, tendons, ligaments, and other soft tissues. The force makes the injury take time and is challenging to heal. PRP therapy poses an appealing approach to helping athletes recover from various sports injuries by improving functionality and mobility.
- Effectively Reduces Inflammation
The human musculoskeletal system is a complex structure that will take a prolonged time to heal the injured ligament, depending on the severity. PRP, as an advanced therapy, offers a safe and fast healing process by decreasing swelling and pain of the elbow bursitis
- Simple and Minimally Invasive Procedure
PRP therapy involves the collection of a blood sample from the patient to get the proteins and growth factors to cure elbow bursitis. This minimally invasive procedure reduces the necessity for surgery.
Limitations of PRP Therapy
As the injection is prepared from the patient’s blood, PRP therapy has manila risks and rare side effects like pain, tissue damage, or infection at the injection site.
Stem Cell Therapy
Using stem cell therapy to treat elbow bursitis provides fast, safe, and effective results. The approach is minimally invasive and non-surgical, indicating little to no risk of complications or side effects. The power of this regenerative medicine approach tends to modify the conventional treatment for elbow bursitis.
How to Perform Stem Cell Therapy for Elbow Bursitis?
Stem cell therapy is considered the future of orthopaedic medicine. It involves specialised cells to stimulate and speed up the healing process of elbow bursitis. As the first step in this simple approach, the healthcare professional collects and prepares the stem cells, especially mesenchymal ones.
Adult mesenchymal stem cells have the potential to repair and regenerate the injured tissues in elbows. Then the injection is re-injected into the affected area. The therapy addresses the root cause of your pain and improves your joint function while decreasing discomfort and inflammation.
Evidence of Stem Cell Therapy
Elbow bursitis has the highest prevalence in younger individuals. The role of cell therapy is defined by various studies, showing the significant clinical improvement and repair of damaged ligaments, tendons, and tissues. Most individuals recover from the injury within a short period.
Benefits of Stem Cell Therapy
- Less Recovery Period
Unlike the surgical procedure, stem cell therapy will yield a minimal recovery from elbow bursitis. The approach aims to drive patients to return to their normal life frame.
- Enhance Functionality and Flexibility
Stem cell treatment also increases your elbow joints’ range of motion, flexibility, and functionality. It will help the patients restore their damaged tissue or muscles as before the inflammation.
- Reduces Pain Effectively
Elbow bursitis, when left unnoticed, causes severe pain in the arm. Stems cell therapy offers effective pain relief associated with the condition by regenerating the damaged tissues.
Limitations of Stem Cell Therapy
In most patients, stem cell injections implement biological sources that are derived directly from the patients. Therefore there is a low chance of risks or adverse electives. Nonetheless, sometimes, you may notice redness or slight swelling in the injected area of the elbow.
Conclusion
Even though elbow bursitis is a common condition, you don’t have to let the condition affect the quality of your life. Most people don’t think about their elbow until they experience discomfort or pain.
Treatment for elbow bursitis involves surgical and non-surgical methods that are opted for based on the stage of the condition. Initial treatment focuses on limiting your activities that may aggravate the inflammation and symptoms of bursitis.
Nonetheless, Choosing the holistic regenerative elbow bursitis treatment approach will bring you long-lasting pain relief by repairing and regenerating the damaged tissues in the elbow. Be it stem cell therapy or PRP, the treatment can get to the underlying cause of the problem and improve your overall functionality.