Treating chronic muscle, joint pain with regenerative medicine

This story first appeared in Healthy You - January 2025, The Gazette’s quarterly health publication.

You may not have heard about orthobiologics, but the regenerative medicine may be your answer to treat pain coming from your muscles, bones or joints.

Orthobiologics is described as the use of naturally occurring substances from the body to promote healing and regeneration of damaged tissue.

“We use regenerative medicine to treat chronic conditions such as mild to moderate arthritis, chronic tendinitis, partial tears of tendons, ligaments or muscles,” said Dr. Daniel Jones. Jones is a non-operative sports medicine specialist at Steindler Orthopedic Clinic in Iowa City where he has worked for the past eight years. He performs most of the platelet-rich plasma, or PRP injections, at the clinic, which are part of this form of treatment.

“These are excellent options, particularly for younger and middle-aged patients trying to avoid surgical treatment and delay progression of arthritis and partial thickness tears,” he said.

Jones specializes in sports medicine but offers additional services like these ultrasound-guided regenerative medicine injections. Trained to identify and manage injuries with the goal of getting people back to their active lifestyles, he also received special training to accurately diagnose and treat acute and chronic injuries with the use of ultrasound.

So how can PRP help you?

The plasma is gathered from the blood taken from a vein in the patient’s arm. The blood and plasma are spun in a centrifuge until the plasma separates from the blood, concentrating it into a platelet-rich plasma.

PRP is injected into the body to stimulate healing in a particular area. The platelets encourage cell growth and dispose of damaged cells from the injury site. The entire procedure can be done in under 30 minutes.

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“Orthobiologics has been around longer than most realize but has garnered much more interest in recent years, leading to more products being developed and evaluated,” Jones said.

PRP is a somewhat revolutionary-sounding concept whereby the body heals itself. PRP therapy has been found to harness and amplify the natural growth factors in our blood cells to help heal damaged tissue. It’s also from a patient’s own body, which avoids any risks associated with receiving donated blood. Also, side effects from the procedure are very uncommon.

“Orthobiologics are becoming great options for people to treat a variety of acute and chronic conditions leading to more long-term healing and pain-relief outcomes,” Jones said. “But as with any treatment, there are limitations. There are certain conditions these types of injections and procedures work very well for and others that do not respond as favorably.”

Research into healing processes led to a mindset among medical professionals from a focus on joint reconstruction to the possibility of regenerating damaged tissue. The term orthobiologics is a combination of two words — “ortho,” referring to orthopedics, and “biologics,” referring to substances derived from one's body.

PRP therapy is one method doctors like Jones can use to treat tendonitis — an inflammation of the tendon, or tendinosis, which is damage that results in the tendon becoming hardened and scarred.

For athletes or weekend warriors, their sports injuries often involve wounded joints, ligaments and tendons. PRP injections are a natural option to accelerate the healing of these areas injured while playing sports.

Even beyond traditional sports injuries, PRP injections can treat damaged muscles, arthritis and tendonitis. Check with your physician to evaluate and determine whether PRP treatment is the correct choice for you.

Jones has a word of warning, however.

“It does not take the place of surgery,” Jones said, “as some conditions such as full thickness rotator cuff tendon tears and advanced arthritis still tend to do better with surgical treatment. But it does fill a need and provide more long-term treatment options for several conditions as opposed to the more short-term pain relief of cortisone/steroid injections.”

Unfortunately, your insurance provider may not cover PRP therapy, as many insurance companies still consider the procedure experimental. If your insurance does not cover the procedure, your physician can discuss other options that may benefit you.