Does platelet rich plasma (PRP) treatment really work?

When a woman visited a spa in New Mexico in summer 2018 the last thing she expected was to end up with HIV. But that’s what happened, says a report recently published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).1

Faced with three mysterious cases of HIV transmission, CDC investigators tracked them to an unlicensed spa offering “vampire facials”—a skin treatment that’s supposedly cheaper and less invasive than a facelift, and in vogue after Kim Kardashian posted about it on Instagram. The spa was shut down within months of the patient testing positive for HIV, and the owner is now in jail after pleading guilty to practising medicine without a licence.[2]

Still, the concept of the vampire facial—or platelet rich plasma (PRP) treatment, as it’s officially known—remains controversial. Clinical guidelines for PRP treatment protocols don’t exist, and medical organisations worldwide disagree about the state of the evidence.

Nevertheless, athletes and celebrities such as Tiger Woods, Hailey Bieber, and Joe Rogan have raved about a treatment that’s been used for cosmetic dermatology, hair loss, orthopaedics, erectile dysfunction, bone grafts, diabetic wounds, and dentistry.