JU pitcher undergoes cutting-edge PRP therapy to prolong season

A longer version of this story appeared in the June 13, 2012, H section of The Florida Times-Union:

By Clayton Levins
JU sophomore Communications major

He sat in the office, his stomach turned upside-down, waiting.

Steve Eagerton had been through the painful, cutting-edge procedure before – he was one of the first in Jacksonville to receive it – but that didn’t stop his anxiousness over something he knew would determine his season. The 24-year-old Jacksonville University pitcher was getting ready for another round of a medical treatment that’s growing in popularity among athletes: Platelet-Rich Plasma therapy. 

“It (was) my senior year, and I couldn’t get surgery and come back,” he said recently after his latest round. “So this therapy was the best thing that could give me a chance to play again this year.”

Eagerton had the arduous procedure done the first time in April 2010 at Jacksonville Orthopedic Institute. It meant having a cold, 25-gauge needle stuck into his elbow with no numbing agent. The pain was worth it, though, he said, because he knew it would bring him back to the Dolphins and the game he loved.

PRP therapy uses enriched blood plasma taken from the body and inserted into an injured ligament, tendon or muscle to speed recovery and heal an injured area, said JU athletic trainer Nick Dreger.

“It makes our jobs easier because it speeds up recovery time and increases exercise tolerance,” he said. “Anything that speeds up recovery time, healing factors and growth factors is a great thing.”

Some research on PRP therapy has been promising. For example, a 2006 study published by The American Journal of Sports Medicine reported improved pain measurements in 60 percent of patients’ injured areas after two months, compared to just 16 percent in cases that did not use PRP.

The process involves taking blood from the patient’s arm, placing it in a centrifuge to create platelet-rich plasma and inserting it into the injured area with increased growth factors such as proteins, according to The Institute of Regenerative and Molecular Orthopedics.

It’s recommended for skeletally mature patients 18 and older and is currently used for small tears in ligaments, tendonitis, tennis elbow and muscle strains, Dreger said.

 As for Eagerton, he believes his recent PRP treatment helped prolong his senior season.

“Now when I throw, it feels a lot better,” he said. “I know my arm, and it wasn’t just the rest that helped.”