I have been doing PRP for over a year now. In fact I was trained by Joe Greco, Pa-C, PhD. Joe is a physicians assistant with a PhD.....he's fully trained and certified to perform surgery. PRP has several possible applications for hair restoration, either in improving surgery or as a stand alone treatment for hair loss as highlighted in these videos.
PRP involves the application/injection of plasma that has about 5X the amount of platelets as in circulating blood. The platelets secrete numerous growth factors, including PDGF and VEGF, both of which have been shown to have positive effects on hair growth. So it is reasonable to think that PRP would not only help wound healing but also hair growth. As some posters mentioned, PRP as a stand alone procedure would have to be repeated on a periodic basis to maintain benefits.
I have been using PRP on certain of my transplant patients, particularly those have had prior surgery, for over a year. I have seen more rapid healing but I have not done enough cases to determine if there is a definite effect on growth. PRP is appearing in numerous areas of surgery (esp orthopedics and dental surgery) and I firmly believe it has a future with hair restoration, although the exact role needs to be worked out with more research.
On a personal note, I have had PRP done on myself. It is being increasing used for sports injuries and reportedly helped a couple Pittsburgh Steelers play in the Super Bowl (see
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/sp...d.html?_r=1&hp). I have had significant triceps tendonitis in my elbow for many years, often limiting my weight lifting and golf. The orthopedic surgeon I saw several years ago told me nothing could be done until it got bad enough for surgery. When I was visiting Joe in January, he treated my elbow with his special modification of PRP, injecting all around the tendon attachment. While it could be placebo effect, my chronic pain has completely disappeared and I can barely remember which elbow I had the problem with. I also had my scalp treated about a year ago and everyone has been complementing on my hair but this is very hard to quantify.
Possible candidates for stand alone treatment would be those with thinning and miniaturization, especially in the crown, and when surgery is not indicated or desired. I'm sure that Joe would agree with the statement that while an improvement in hair caliber and visual thickness is expected, the degree of improvement cannot be predicted.
