How much PRP can you get from 20cc blood draw for hair treatment?

Each collecting system will work a little differently but I typically obtain 4mL of PRP from 30mL of whole blood.  Not everyone is a good candidate for this treatment so please see a Board Certified or Board Eligible Plastic Surgeon to evaluate if you may benefit. Good luck!
This content is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment provided by a qualified healthcare professional.  You should always seek the advice of your physician or healthcare professional for any questions you have about your own medical condition. 

In my opinion, the ideal concentration of PRP for injection  into the scalp is 3.8 to  5 times  concentration in the blood . Using a 22ml Eclipse system, approximately 5 - 7 cc's of high concentrate PRP is produced. It is important that the amount of red blood cells and white blood cells is at a minimum. These have the potential to lead to inflammation and inflammation is not helpful in hair regrowth. I believe the best injection technique is a subdermal Depo injection. At this level it has the ability to diffuse and is less painful. Find a PRP expert. Ask to see photos.PRPHAIRMD.COM 

There are a handful of companies that sell centrifuges  that can concentrate PRP 4 to 5x . A few of them like arteriocyte have machines specifically made to properly concentrate PRP. There are more than a dozen companies who sell cheap centrifuges and claim to spin PRP to get the right concentration. These machines are regular centrifuges adapted to separate out the PRP and they never do. Not only who injects you is important, but what kind of machine is used matters a lot. As far as the amount of blood needed to concentrate PRP will depend on the type of centrifuge used .For example if  Tru PRP is used (by arteriocyte) to get a concentration of 10 ml, 52 ml of blood needs to be used .So, not only check the qualification and experience of the provider check what kind of machine they are using.

It really depends on how large the area being treated it and what system your doctor uses to collect the prp.
Best,
Dr. Siman

Thanks for your question. This can be quite confusing, I know. There are over 20 FDA approved PRP preparation kits available in the United States. The concentration of PRP produced does vary based on the kit used AND the amount of blood collected. Given an average platelet count in your whole blood, there is about 2cc of "true PRP" (approx. 5-6x concentration) per 10 ml blood draw. In most cases, with the best kits, it takes a 50 ml blood draw then to  get about 10ml of PRP at that ideal concentration. Another important question has to do with the delivery of the PRP to the scalp, which is done in two ways:
1. Direct injection into the subcutaneous tissue of the scalp
2. Microneedling of the scalp, with additional PRP spread on the surface to "soak into" the dermis through the channels created by the microneedling.
It is important that the PRP be injected into the subcutaneous tissue as this is where the bulb of the hair follicle is. The second method, the microneedling, is also helpful though some feel it is not critical to the success of the procedure. 
And to answer your question directly, nothing can get 17cc of PRP from a 20cc blod draw. That is physically impossible if you define PRP as 5x concentration and you start with an average platelet count of around 240,000 for example. 
Best,
Lisa Vuich, MD