Is all Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) the same?

What is PRP?

Platelet rich plasma is a relatively new technique for treating hair loss. It involves spinning down blood to obtain a portion of the blood called the platelet rich plasma (PRP) fraction. The PRP is then injected into the scalp.

PRP is not all the same

A mistake is assuming that all PRP is the same. In this photo, I show two of a number of factors that can be altered in preparing PRP. The amount (volume) of blood we take from our patients influences how much PRP we have for injection. We use 120 mL. Would we achieve different results is we obtained 20 mL or 40 mL of blood from patients? Probably. The second factor in this photo is the "hematocrit" or the proportion of red blood cells that are allowed into the PRP. Here we set the machine at 7 %, but sometimes we use 2 % and 4%. Does the hematocrit setting influence the results? Probably. The hematocrit setting ultimately influences the number of inflammatory white blood cells that are in the PRP - and we know this can affect wound healing and presumably hair growth responses. These are a number of other things that can be changed during a PRP session and these are just two.

Is all PRP created equally? No.