How much PRP do you actually get from your blood?

Question

When a person comes to you with alopecia or some other loss condition. How much of the prp is actually given to the person, meaning, you draw blood, spin it, mix it and whatever, does the person get 50 mm or 100 mm of actual prp. Will you spread the prp around in various place on the scalp.

Anil R. Shah, MD · Answer

The amount of platelets that are derived by each milliliter of blood drawn will vary by patient, but it will also vary by extraction technique. Most offices will used advanced centrifuge systems for preparation of Platelet-Rich Plasma. Offices that provide PRP will concentrate their platelet-plasma concentrations differently. The amount of PRP that you will receive will depend more on how much blood is drawn and used, versus how much plasma is accumulated for injections. Best, Dr. Anil Shah

David Deutsch, MD · Answer

Unfortunately to date there is no standard protocol related to the preparation and administration of PRP (e.g. amount,depth of injection,time between treatments,etc). Most hair related data indicates that the ideal platelet concentration is about 3-4 times normal. The amount of PRP obtained is roughly about 1/3 the amount of blood drawn (so if 30cc of blood are drawn we end up with about 10cc of PRP)

Jeff Rapaport, MD · Answer

There are no peer reviewed studies to determine which concentration is most effective. As you can see, some doctors believe that higher concentrations work better. I feel it is not the concentration but the total number of platelets delivered that is important. Furthermore, there are three other factors. Firstly,  red blood cells and white blood cells are not helpful. Secondly, cytokines and other factors in the plasma are functional. Thirdly, the injection technique makes a difference. I prefer the subdermal Depo injection. Find a PRP expert. Good luck

Sierra Storm, ND · Answer

It depends on the number of tubes that are drawn. I get about 2.5 - 3 cc’s of PRP per 8 cc’s of  blood drawn.

Neil Sadick, MD · Answer

We usually draw 10 ml of blood which yields 3 ml PRP. For alopecia, this is injected in the areas of hair loss evenly. There is no standard methodology as of yet so make sure you find a practitioner that has extensive empirical experience in performing this treatment. We typically recommend 3 PRP treatments total at a 3 month time period. Depending on the results we recommend further txs.

William Yates, MD · Answer

Hello SkinToneAt our Clinic we usually extract between 40-50 cc’s of blood. Using top of the line equipment we are able to extract 10-12 cc’s of plasma which is distributed in injections around your scalp.

Benjamin C. Paul, MD · Answer

Thanks for this question. When it comes to PRP for hairloss, I believe the DURATION, not the CONCENTRATION, matters most. There are studies showing that growth factors made from standard PRP can be fully washed away by the scalp's vascularity in as little as 24 hours. I have written an article that is to be published about long-acting PRP (LA-PRP) that explains how to get the growth factors to stay around for many weeks if not months.  The prolonged bathing of a follicle will lead to growth.  Think of it this way, hair grows slowly.... if you put a stimulant that is gone in less than a day... what type of long term effect will it have?  (probably very little).  Again, duration (rather than concentration) is likely the most relevant variable in PRP treatment for hair loss.  Best from Manhattan.

Jeff Donovan, MD, PhD · Answer

Some offices get a little some get a lot. It depends on the machine used and how much blood is taken and how weak the final PRP concentration is. The Angel PRP system allows 120-180 mL of blood to be taken from the patient giving 12-18 mL of high quality PRP (5x above baseline). If you take less blood you get less PrP. If you dilute the PRP at the end and make it weaker you get more PrP. PRP is much like coffee - I can make a strong 30 mL espresso or I can dilute it with water to make a 250 mL large volume coffee. A sip of the espresso wakes you up. One sip of the large volume coffee doesn’t wake you up all that much. Same machine.  High quality PrP at 5-7 times above baseline has the potential to wake up hairs. Lots and lots of mL of high quality PRP has the potential to wake up lots and lots of hairs. Low quality PRP at 2-3 times comcentrations likely has less effect.  Your question is a good one. Do not focus only on volume, focus on how much blood is taken out and the final concentration put back in.

Razieh Soltani, MD · Answer

Thanks for your question. PRP is a very exciting and growing field and there are lots of unanswered questions in this arena. The amount of PRP extracted from blood depends on the system used and varies widely. Several studies have shown that drawing up around 22 cc of blood which yields around 7-9 cc of PRP can reliably increase hair density. Best of luck.
Razieh Soltani, MD. Board certified dermatologist.

Steven F. Weiner, MD · Answer

This is a great question. The problem is that there is no uniformity from office to office with PRP. PRP means Platelet RICH Plasma but many office only give you 2-3 times the normal blood concentration of PRP which isn't very useful. The studies show that about 5-7x is needed for optimal effects. That requires at least 60cc of blood to be drawn to get 6-8 cc of PRP. If you are only having 10-20cc drawn, you probably aren't getting high concentration PRP. We use the Magellan and Genius systems which yield 6-7X PRP. These cost more and most offices don't want to spend the money. We actually just tested the Genius system by counting the platelets and it was in the perfect range with 1.5 million platelets per cc.

How much PRP do you actually get from your blood?

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