Platelet Rich Plasma Injections

@EddieA,

You still getting around to posting some more? We're very interested.

 

Sorry for the wait. Crazy time of year.

What questions do you want me to answer?

My headache is still significantly better and I would say my tinnitus is down a solid 20-30%.

Overall, I just feel much better.

I still have spikes and it gets on my nerves but I am glad I did it.

Still waiting for an actual treatment though...

 

@EddieA, I'm copying my earlier posts:

Could you tell us about cost? How did you choose your clinic? PRP ENT is not a common application, any way you would share which clinic you utilized? How was intra-articular injection determined over something like intratympanic? Why was intra-articular viable? Any risks that you were made aware of? Is there a measurable quantity that you received regarding PRP? Was there any recovery window, were you limited at all on anything you could do for a duration? Is PRP the only substance that you received from the clinic, no vitamins, stem cell, nothing else entered your body? Were you doing any other therapies in conjunction with this one?

Please elaborate as much as you can, and include anything that you think would be informative. There are many of us interested in this procedure.

Also, what makes you think that the nerves are healing? Did the doctor suggest this? What was his reasoning? This is something important that those of us who have been interested in PRP have been speculating on.

 

They were about $900 each time. I went to the Turtle Creek Surgery Center in Tyler, TX.

Since I also have a headache, the main reason for the shots was my pain. That's why I didn't have it injected into my ear canal. I felt that injecting into my ear canal was too risky. Maybe I will try it in the future if it seems safe enough.

I was told that PRP has practically no side effects, but since it is a new treatment, that can be hard to confirm. I haven't had a single side effect at all. No additional pain, grogginess or anything like that.

Not sure on the quantity, but they drew a small vial of my blood for the injections.

No recovery time. I just needed a ride back to my hotel. I was just a little tired for a day or so but there was no real recovery.

As far as I know, the injections consisted of only PRP that was spun from my blood sample. That's the whole point. I don't think it was mixed with anything.

I did receive some lidocaine injections beforehand however. That was just to numb the pain at the site of the injection. I had no additional pain in that area the next day.

I tried the Levo (absolute rip off and HORRIBLE customer service- my audiologist actually severed ties with them because they are so horrid), acupuncture , noise machines, etc. The usual run of the gamut. Nothing really helped, but somethings were okay at distracting me in the moment.

I was told that the nerves were healing because that's how PRP is advertised. As far as I understand, it is a similar concept to stem cells. I don't know the exact science behind it, but the platelets are supposed to stimulate tissue and repair damaged areas. It has certainly lessensed my pain but the tinnitus is still quite annoying. Just not as intense as it used to be.

Hope that helps

 

It may help by:

. Driving inflammation down in the same way as Low dose naltrexone

And/or

. Don't pain and tinnitus share similar brain pathways? (Or am I confusing that with depression?)

 

WOAH. I didn't know this thread existed until now. Good things keep happening! Eddie, thank you for being a part of this forum!

Knowing someone here had PRP work to an extent is very reassuring.

 

I seriously doubt this, but did insurance cover any of this cost? Was it simply $900 out of pocket? $900 per treatment, did you get injections in two places or just the one? Would you happen to know if it would have cost more to receive the two intratypanic injections? Any idea on how they determine cost? $900 is very affordable in comparison to most every treatment.

 

I don't know how cost is calculated.

It was out of pocket both times. Both injections were the same site.

 

A year ago I found out about how a treatment called Orthokine, which is mostly PRP serum that proved useful in some cases of Meniere's disease (50% success rate). There is strong evidence that shows it works pretty well for joint problems, but some people find a lot of relief with many disorders.

Since I haven't had any treatment options from doctors I looked for this treatment to see if it could work. Last July I contacted a doctor in my country who agreed to treat me. I was injected with this PRP serum 4 times in one month, one each week. One in my TMJ and another next to neck vertebrae each time.

It hasn't cured my hyperacusis & tinnitus, but the stinging ear pain that came with sudden loud sounds that left me knocked out for hours and days is quite gone since then. This has made my hyperacusis & tinnitus much more bearable to tolerate and my life quality has improved at levels that I haven't felt since years ago.

I am looking forward to take more injections now that almost a year has passed to see if I can make some more improvements.

 

How has this helped your hearing loss?

 

I am going to try and get this done as I am in severe discomfort from reactive tinnitus and hyperacusis and it has ruined my life. There is something going on with my nerves and I have to try something. Thank you for posting your testimony here.

@Eddie, thank you for posting about yours. I am not far from Turtle Creek Surgery Center in Tyler, TX. I am going to see if I can find some relief. Any updates on how you are doing nowadays?

 

Try it and let me know if it helps! I’ve been looking into this but nobody in my area will try it for hearing damage.

 

Will do. My best bet, it looks like, is finding someone that will inject in the AA joint like shown here. I don't think anyone's going to do it to the ears around me.

 

Yeah, I’ve reached out to a lot of regenerative medicine clinics, they all do stem cells for joints, muscles, and other stuff but when I ask about an injection anywhere they can, even if it has a 1% chance of working, they want nothing to do with it. Every single place wants absolutely nothing to do with hearing issues. It sucks.

The only place I have found in the US saying they do IT injections is Broward ENT & Aesthetics. Stem cells from your fat I believe. I’ll probably end up trying it.

 

I think it’s ENT specific. If you hunt, you can find them. I did autologous bone marrow stem cells re-injected into the bloodstream a few years ago in the US. I told my ENT about it, they suggested I should bring the stem cells and they would do an intratympanic injection.

It was way too complicated figuring out how to transport the stems from the doctor who extracted them to the ENT (the ENT was not set up to extract bone or fat stem cells) so I did not pursue. And the extraction doctor probably would not have permitted me to waltz off with them in a cooler with an ice pack in the trunk of my car while I raced over to the ENT. But I was glad the ENT was open to the idea.

 

What are the major risks of PRP injections that is holding ENTs back from providing this easy option to patients? This is much less invasive than DBS, which Drs. are doing clinical trials, but not for PRP? Why?
PRP appears to help stimulate healthy mucosa biofilm, to possibly regenerate weak tissue, RW and OW membranes?

 

Don't waste your money at Broward. I went there and gained nothing. Use Dr. Shim's protocol in the USA. He has signed up over a dozen USA doctors. He has an app coming out called Talala, available for iOS and Android, to walk each doctor along with the patients through the procedure and he oversees it as it is being conducted.

Check out Dr. Shim's new website...

 

Did it help you?

 

Oh, so you did the stem cell IT injections with Dr. DuMornay? How much did they charge? They said like $15k? He’s the only place I found that does the IT injections instead of just normal IV.

Cool, what’s the website for Dr. Shim? So it’s PRP IT injection?

 

Wow, yeah, sounds like you have a very open ENT. I really feel like any kind of stem cells being injected into my middle ear would promote some kind of healing.

 

No, the bone marrow stem cells had no effect, good or bad.

 

That sucks.

 

I agree.

 

I only did one ear at Broward ENT. It was around $7000.00. Dr Shim trained a chiropractor in Sarasota, FL that I personally introduced him to. They do very advanced medical treatments for all types of patients. Hearing loss, tinnitus. hyperacusis, cancer, bone marrow & stem cells injections, balance issues, PRP, lasers, cranial pressure relief, TMJ etc. He has a very diverse practice. He doesn't have the best bedside manner, but still a willing doctor to help people.

Dr Shim's website is: cmclinics.com

Email him, he responds very quick: heliocityclinic@gmail.com

They've already treated over a dozen people with Dr. Shim's patented IT injections method. I made the Sarasota doctor some serious money already I bet and added something very, very valuable to his Sarasota practice! They treated me with multiple IT injections so far (2 bone marrow injections and I think after tomorrow 2 PRP injections) as well as laser. The last injection is tomorrow. Then Dr. Shim said it could take up to 2 to 6 months to see results being that my hearing loss issues are chronic and not acute.

If you have any questions, fire away...

 

I don't want to sound negative and I really wish @scotty03874 success with the treatment. Perhaps there is some undiscovered mechanism of action of PRP on ears.

However, for people thinking about Shim's treatment, a few warnings. This may have been discussed in other threads too.

First, there is very little evidence if any that intratympanic PRP injections do anything. Shim could have easily published a retrospective study. Not a clinical trial, too expensive, but a retrospective study, with all its limits, would have helped. Instead he posts audiograms of clients in his blog, which has zero statistical significance, as we don't know for how many people the treatment did nothing or worsened them.

With Shim providing zero evidence, there is only one very poor quality study from an Indian hospital claiming PRP can help inner ear. PRP can repair tissue, maybe nerves, but not the cochlea. In fact an anecdotal analysis in Tinnitus Talk in this thread, first post shows that, from Shim posted audiograms, you could get a worsening at high frequencies. This is totally anecdotal, but worth factoring in.

There are doubts that even exosomes or stem cells can do any real repair work in the inner ear. PRP is very dubious. I contacted a few researchers and they all were negative.

Having said this, I hope that all who are trying this benefit through some unknown mechanisms of action.

Finally, for non intratympanic use, given the tissue repair properties of PRP, I can see those helping in some middle ear issues or eardrum problems.

 

Nice, good luck. I hope it helps. Where is this place in Sarasota? I’ll go try it ASAP. Can’t deal with the noxacusis pain much longer.

 

Email I got back.

 

Brian & Travis, contact their patient coordinator (Brooke). And I recommend only doing Bone Marrow Stem Cells (far stronger, even Dr. Shim agrees), not just PRP only. Or just do both like I did. You could add laser too if you wanted...

patientcoordinatorsrq@gmail.com / Brooke

askdoctorjl@gmail.com / Dr John

frontofficesrq@gmail.com / Candace

 

Yah, nobody likes your negativity here. Better left unsaid than said IMO. Especially after spending thousands and thousands of dollars seeking some help. I'm suffering and so are lots of other people on this forum with hearing loss and tinnitus. I also did Bone Marrow Stem Cells injections too which you might not have known...

End note: I do understand that Dr. Shim has no completed studies. But why would he fly to a conference in Orlando and present at it if his methods didn't work at all?

 

Really admire what you are doing @scotty03874! Leaving no stone unturned. Because of what information you have provided, I'm thinking of flying over to the US to try and save myself from the unthinkable. My tinnitus has gotten beyond severe over the last 2 months and I don't know how long I can hold out.

In your opinion, would visiting Dr. Shim in Korea be just as good as the clinic that you got the treatment at in Florida?

The only reason I ask because Korea is a shorter flight for me from Australia. But from what you have said, you are receiving extra treatments, LLLT etc on top of your PRP. Is that right?