Platelet rich plasma treatment in London

How it is made, and why that matters

A quantity of your blood is drawn into a tube, which is then spun in a centrifuge. Spinning separates the blood by density: red cells at the bottom, a thin layer containing platelets and white cells above them, and plasma at the top. The platelet-rich fraction is drawn off and injected back into the skin or scalp.

Platelets are best known for clotting, and they also contain granules packed with growth factors that are released when they are activated. The rationale is that concentrating and delivering those growth factors into tissue prompts a repair response.

The detail that matters, and that is almost never explained to patients, is that every part of this varies: the volume drawn, the tube system used, the anticoagulant, the centrifuge speed, the spin time, whether a single or double spin is performed, how much white cell content is retained, and the final platelet concentration achieved. Two clinics both offering this treatment may be delivering meaningfully different products.

The variation between protocols is the main reason the published evidence is so hard to summarise.

What the variation means for you

It means the useful questions are unusually specific.

1. Which system do you use, and what platelet concentration does it achieve relative to baseline?
2. Single or double spin, and why?
3. How much blood do you draw, and how much product does that yield?
4. Do you activate the platelets, and if so how?
5. How many sessions, and what does maintenance look like?
6. What are you treating in my case, and how will we assess it?

You are not auditing the science. You are establishing whether the person treating you has engaged with any of it. A practitioner who can answer precisely is in a different category from one who answers with a package name.

Where it is used

Skin quality

Injected across the face for texture, tone and fine lines, often alongside microneedling. Improvement is gradual and cumulative across a course.

Periorbital skin

A common use, because the thin skin around the eyes has limited options and this adds nothing that can retain fluid in the way a gel can.

Hair thinning

Injected into the scalp for pattern hair loss, usually alongside conventional treatment rather than instead of it. This is one of the better supported uses.

Combined with microneedling

Applied topically into fresh microchannels or injected in the same session. Popular, and the evidence for the combination is more encouraging than for either alone in some settings.

What the appointment involves

Blood is drawn as it would be for any test. The tube is spun for several minutes. The prepared plasma is then injected across the treatment area, or applied into microchannels if combined with needling. The whole appointment usually takes under an hour.

• Expect swelling immediately afterwards, sometimes more than people anticipate.
• Bruising at injection points is common, particularly around the eyes.
• Redness and tenderness for a day or two.
• Normal activity the next day for most people.
• Results assessed across a course rather than after one session.

Because the material comes from you, allergic reaction to the product itself is not a concern in the way it is with an injected foreign material. Infection, bruising and the usual injection risks all still apply.

Being realistic about outcomes

The reasonable expectation is a gradual improvement in skin quality across a course, maintained with periodic treatment. For hair, the reasonable expectation is a contribution to a wider plan rather than a replacement for established treatment.

The unreasonable expectations, which appear regularly in marketing, are dramatic tightening, reversal of significant hair loss, and results from a single session. None of those is supported, and a clinic promising them is describing a product it does not have.

Safety and who should not have it

• Certain blood disorders and platelet abnormalities.
• Active infection, locally or systemically.
• Some medications, including anticoagulants, which should be declared.
• Active skin infection at the treatment site.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding, where practitioners generally decline cosmetic treatment.
• Anyone unwilling to have blood drawn, which is worth saying out loud before booking.

Because this involves handling blood, the standards for preparation, labelling and traceability matter. Ask how your sample is labelled and handled, and satisfy yourself that the process looks like a clinical one rather than an improvised one.