In 2008, April Steiner-Bennett was on top of the world – or at least, near the top of the world rankings.

 

The Phoenix-based pole-vaulter, who had competed at the University of Arkansas, finished eighth in the Olympic Games in Beijing despite nursing sore hamstrings that she said felt like “a really, really, really bad toothache … but in my butt.”

 

She had plans to continue her career, but rest and a modified training schedule didn’t improve her condition. On both legs, one head of her hamstring had pulled off the bone, and every medical procedure she tried, including massage therapies and ultrasound, did not lead to healing. Her career was in jeopardy.

 

Running out of options, she came to Little Rock to undergo a platelet-rich plasma injection under the care of David Harshfield, MD, an interventional radiologist, at the AnotherWay Clinic directed by Carl Keller. Her own blood was injected into the site of her problem, resulting in complete healing. Eight months after undergoing the treatment in December 2008, she realized her hamstrings were pain-free.

 

“Initially when you get it done, you feel like a million bucks,” she said. “I felt like I could have gone and run forever, but then I had to sit and do nothing for eight weeks, and that was well worth it. It saved my career. I don’t have any pain. There’s no residual cramping.”

 

The process involves drawing a patient’s blood and then spinning it in a centrifuge that separates it into three components: heavier red blood cells, platelet-poor plasma, and platelet-rich plasma containing a concentration of multiple growth factors that is injected into the problem area. The growth factors accelerate the healing response at a cellular level, helped in part by the absence of the red blood cells, which can be irritating and painful. The concentration of white blood cells also helps prevent infection. “By doing this separation and centrifuging technique, you can eliminate the undesirable elements and concentrate just desirable elements,” said William Hefley, MD, an orthopedic surgeon with OrthoSurgeons who specializes in hip, knees and shoulder surgery.

 

Hefley, the football team doctor for Little Rock’s Pulaski Academy, became interested in the procedure last year when a star receiver suffered a high ankle sprain during the playoffs. Hefley had heard that platelet-rich plasma therapy could effectively treat such an injury after James Bradley, MD, a team doctor with the Pittsburgh Steelers, used it to treat receiver Hines Ward for a high knee sprain prior to the 2009 Super Bowl. Hefley spoke with Bradley and then, using the therapy, was able to return his own patient to the playing field within a couple of weeks.

 

AnotherWay’sKeller said that, aside from Steiner-Bennett, his clinic has treated professional golfers as well as basketball players suffering from jumper’s knee. But while the therapy has shown great promise for elite athletes, it also can be effective for healing chronic pain so that patients don’t have to undergo surgery to resume a normal life.

 

Harshfield said that platelet-rich plasma therapy is more patient-centered than many traditional healing techniques and keeps the patient off a “roller-coaster ride” of referrals, treatments, and, ultimately, major surgery. He said he has never had a complication using this type of treatment option. “What we’re doing is something that’s so simple in lieu of doing something that’s so really difficult,” he said.

 

He said that many traditional medical techniques fight inflammation, which in the case of an injury is part of a healing process. Platelet-rich plasma therapy instead helps the body heal itself. “Life’s just about damage control,” he said. “We’re up. We’re walking on two legs. We’re going to have a little tissue trauma all day long, a little microtrauma. … As we sleep and rest, it repairs itself back to a certain point. All these medications that we take may be preventing us from healing properly, and that may be where we start this kind of tight spiral of arthritis …”

 

Hefley said that while the therapy shows a lot of promise, more research needs to be done to prove its effectiveness. “It’s new,” he said. “It’s one of those things that there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of laboratory work demonstrating that it accelerates tissue formation, accelerates healing. …but it’s something that seems to be gaining more and more acceptance over time.”

 

Steiner-Bennett has had two additional platelet-rich plasma therapy sessions, but not for her hamstrings. This year a plantar fasciitis problem in her right foot has kept her out of competition, and then she had additional problems in her left foot. She received the therapy in Little Rock in both feet and is taking time to recover. Now 30, she knows that the London Olympics in 2012 will be her last chance to win a medal. Without the platelet-rich plasma therapy, however, she wouldn’t even have a chance to compete.

 

“I wouldn’t have had a career,” she said. “I’d be done. I know that for sure.”