PRP Therapy for Post-Covid Musculoskeletal Issues

As the world dealt with the second vicious wave of the coronavirus infection, many who recovered from Covid from the first wave reported various other problems. These included musculoskeletal (MSK) manifestations. Even after recovering completely for over a year, MSK pain is being reported as one of the most common acute post-Covid issues to show up in survivors, remaining for a long term (more than 6 months).

Long Term Post Covid MSK Symptoms

Most of these manifestations are in the forms of myalgia, which is painful muscles or muscle groups and seems to be presenting in more female patients than males. From reports across the world, MSK issues have stemmed in patients with low to severe Covid infection disease activity affecting soft tissues, muscles, joints, and bones, along with respiratory organs. MSK symptoms commonly manifest as myalgia, arthralgia (painful joints), and/or fatigue.

What is PRP Therapy

A regenerative treatment process, PRP, or platelet-rich plasma therapy is performed by injecting pure plasma protein separated from a patient’s own blood sample, into the affected area. It is painless, minimally invasive, safe, and requires little to no recovery time. It is commonly used to treating painful muscles, joints, ligaments, and tendons.

Can PRP therapy help with long-term post covid issues? Does it interfere with the Covid vaccine?

PRP therapy works perfectly well on long-term post-Covid issues like MSK symptoms. When platelet-rich plasma is injected into the muscle or joint, they break down as soon as they enter the patient’s body. This releases growth factors, which are the compounds that renew and repair cells. This process triggers the healing process and reduces pain in the area. The effects last a couple of months and provide long-term relief from MSK pain.

As of now, there have been no reports from anywhere across the world indicating that PRP therapy cannot be used with the Covid vaccine or that it has any adverse effect on it. As such, PRP therapy is relatively low risk as it is performed by using the patient’s own blood sample.

Procedure and recovery

Doctors take a sample of the patient’s blood and put it in a machine called a centrifuge. This machine enables them to separate the various compounds of the blood and retrieve platelet-rich plasma. This compound has concentrated growth factors that help boost the healing process. The separated plasma is then injected into the patient’s affected area.

As the process is minimally invasive, the recovery is quick and easy. A few days of soreness is all the patient may experience with fairly quick improvement over time.

Conclusion

PRP therapy is a good way to deal with long-term post-Covid MSK symptoms. Unlike other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or surgical interventions, PRP therapy does not interfere in any way with your lifestyle and gives sustainable results.