01 Jun 2026Life in Fresno County provides ample opportunities to get outside. Whether you’re hiking in Yosemite, taking in the beauty of the Shinzen Friendship Garden, or exploring one of many farmers’ markets, there’s so much to do.
When you’re experiencing chronic pain, it’s hard to want to stay active. Thoughts of resting whatever hurts come to mind, but that’s not always the best approach. When you’re dealing with a chronic condition like arthritis, staying active is essential.
When chronic knee, ankle, shoulder, or back pain strikes, traditional treatment options often leave you feeling let down. You don’t want to undergo a risky, invasive surgery, but you also can’t take the pain anymore. You’re tired of popping ibuprofen every day.
A rapidly evolving branch of medicine is reshaping traditional treatment options. If you haven’t investigated tissue repair therapy or regenerative medicine, it’s time to take a much closer look, as it doesn’t just manage symptoms; it transforms the joint.
What Is Tissue Repair Therapy?
In the past, badly worn cartilage, ligaments, muscles, and tendons often required surgical repair or joint replacements. This left the person with a long, frustrating recovery time. Tissue repair therapy uses the body’s building blocks to heal damaged tissue.
It’s done by drawing blood from your body, processing it to get the platelet-rich plasma or stem cells, and injecting them directly into the damaged area. This triggers a heightened healing response in the exact area it’s needed.
It’s a natural process that you’ve probably experienced dozens of times in your lifetime. When you were a kid, you fell while running or riding your bike and skinned your knee or elbow.
Your body immediately sent platelets to form a clot that stopped the bleeding and covered the area to enable wound healing. White blood cells head to the area to remove germs and any debris. Finally, healthy cells head to the wound to build new tissue.
Tissue repair therapy is similar; only the injections target cartilage, ligaments, muscles, or tendons. Instead of the body sending the platelets, they’re already in a needle and ready to go directly to the site.
How Tissue Repair Therapy Works
There are several types of tissue repair therapy, and some California practices focus on a few rather than all of them. These two therapies are among the best for tissue repair.
- Platelet-Rich-Plasma Therapy: Your blood is drawn and placed in a centrifuge. It spins at high speeds to separate the platelets from other cells. Those platelets contain growth factors that trigger cells to reduce inflammation and initiate tissue repair.
- Stem Cell Therapy: Stem cells have a special ability to develop into different types of tissue. This enables stem cells to turn into bone, cartilage, or tendons. They’re harvested from fat tissue or bone marrow and injected into the damaged area.
Premium Sports & Orthopedics offers FDA-Approved Treatments, such as Biologic-Based Treatment methods, and Innovative Tissue Repair Therapy.
What Conditions Does Tissue Repair Therapy Treat?
Tissue repair therapy is not a one-size-fits-all cure for every injury or chronic condition. It has, however, proven effective in treating the following ailments in everyone, from those working long days in agriculture to older adults experiencing age-related osteoarthritis to the area’s many competitive athletes.
- Chronic lower back pain
- Degenerative disc disease
- Meniscus tears
- Osteoarthritis
- Partially torn ligaments
- Plantar fasciitis
- Rotator cuff strains
- Runner’s knee
- Tennis or golfer’s elbow
Benefits of Tissue Repair Therapy
Traditional treatment options have been proven over time, though the benefits aren’t always as impressive as some hope. What benefits does tissue repair therapy offer that make it a better choice?
Every situation is different, which is why an initial consultation is so important. However, these are the main comparisons we see among our patients.
- Traditional Corticosteroid Treatments: Immediate recovery time and temporary pain relief by blocking inflammation, but tissue doesn’t heal. It can degrade cartilage and tendons with excessive use.
- Traditional Surgery: A surgery is invasive, so there are long recovery times of a few months to as much as a year. It alters your joints’ structure using metal or plastic replacement parts. You risk infection at the surgical site or blood clots.
- Tissue Repair Therapy: Recovery is short, but it does take a few days for the inflammation and pain to subside. The therapy uses your own tissue, so there’s no risk of rejection. Tissue repair is long-lasting.
What Happens During a Treatment?
Tissue repair is actually faster and easier than you might imagine. In most cases, it’s a procedure that takes little more than 90 minutes per visit. A few visits may be necessary.
Before anything happens, you’ll meet with the doctor for a consultation. During that consultation, the doctor may take an MRI or ultrasound to take a closer look at the damage causing your pain. The severity determines how many injections are necessary. For conditions like arthritis, it usually takes three injections spaced a couple of days apart.
On the treatment day, come in comfortable clothing and bring something to do, such as having an e-reader or tablet with a favorite game or movie downloaded and ready to play.
A portion of your blood or tissue is drawn in a matter of minutes. It’s then taken to the lab for processing in the centrifuge. This process takes upwards of 45 minutes.
Once the platelets or stem cells are ready, the doctor uses an ultrasound to guide the needle to the exact location, whether it’s a space within a joint or a torn area of a tendon or ligament. This precise needle placement ensures the restorative tissue goes exactly where it’s needed.
You may need to return a few more times for additional injections. After that, your body gets to work healing the tissue. During the healing process, mild inflammation is common, but it subsides as the healthy tissue takes shape.
Choose a Trusted Sports & Orthopedics Provider in Fresno
Regenerative medicine has come a long way and is gaining popularity because of those advancements. What’s important as you get started with tissue repair therapy is finding an expert willing to slowly walk you through the process and the realities of recovery.
They’re not miracle cures. You must do your part, too. That’s why Premium Sports & Orthopedics looks at your lifestyle, physical activities, and works with you on a program that helps you succeed. That might mean working with a physical therapist to improve your balance and range of motion or losing weight with the help of a supportive doctor.
Are you ready to learn more about tissue repair therapy? Schedule a consultation online.
