Throughout 2018 and into the first part of 2019 a select group of dermatologists and plastic surgeons convened regularly to discuss the controversies around Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP).

In an effort to move toward consensus on the ideal characteristics and protocols for PRP, Dr Neil Sadick, Dr Wilma Bergfeld, Dr Gordon Sasaki, and Dr Steven Dayan combined their expertise.

Controversies around PRP include but are not limited to platelet yield and concentration, leukocyte and erythrocyte content, treatment intervals, target injection depth, exogenous activation and the quality and consistency of various types of devices and approaches being used in the US market.

“While much has been made of the increase in platelet concentration over baseline, our view is that this parameter, although important, is inadequate by itself and must be presented alongside the total characteristics of the PRP,” Sadick states in a media release. “The presence of inflammatory white and red blood cells may be deleterious for certain applications, negating some of the benefit of concentrating platelets and growth factors.”

“Our thesis is that the maximum benefit from increasing platelet concentration is found somewhere on a bell curve as opposed to being linear,” Sasaki adds. “In other words, there is likely an optimal concentration for each application. However, we need additional randomized clinical trials to provide more convincing evidence-based data. With the grant support of Eclipse, we’ve begun the first investigator-initiated study evaluating high versus low platelet concentration.”

Patient safety was the primary discussion point, followed by reproducing good outcomes.

“We’ve seen a steady increase in our colleagues marketing PRP in their practices,” Dayan comments. “It is important that we, as leaders in our field, educate our peers on the how to perform these procedures safely with FDA-cleared, pyrogen-free devices. Patients deserve to know what they are getting when they pay for PRP treatments. We see huge variations in what is being called “PRP” from one practice to the next due to the differences in commercially available systems on the market.”

“We know PRP will be a hot topic again at the annual meeting this year in Washington D.C. I commend Eclipse for making significant investments in randomized clinical trials that will help us as scientists and clinicians to determine the correct target and endpoints,” concludes Bergfeld, former President of the American Academy of Dermatology and founder of the Women’s Dermatologic Society, in the release.

“We are conducting a retrospective study documenting the positive results we are observing with Eclipse PRP at Cleveland Clinic.”

To download a copy of the whitepaper, “Platelet-Rich Plasma – Be Confident in What You’re Injecting,” visit Eclipse Med.

[Source(s): Eclipse Med, PR Newswire]