Spencer Kobren speaks with IAHRS accepted member Paul Rose, M.D. about finally having the ability to share real data on the efficacy of PRP systems so consumers can avoid wasting their time and their money on ineffective procedures.

Spencer Kobren: Now I would love to eventually be able to name names and let people know, okay, these are the systems that seemed to be working and these are the systems that seemed to not get such great results. Do you think there's ever going to be a time when we're going to have that data that at least I can go out and say, "Hey, look. This study was done," and get that information out to the public so they could ask better informed questions?

Paul Rose, MD: Yes, I think you will be able to get that data. I'm actually going to try to publish that small study that I mentioned that would give people at least an idea of some of the commercial kits that are out there now, and at least in our hands, what we observe.  Now, I think anyone who looked at that study who has a scientific approach could fault us and say, "Well, you know, how was it measured, and would it measure different facility or different practice."  I think there are legitimate issues that someone could raise, but for the kind of study that we did, I think it's really profound that we were able to show such a big difference between systems and how much they concentrated platelets.

Spencer Kobren: Well, listen, I've been aware of this. I'm glad you guys decided to conduct a real study, but you know our friend, Joe, down in your area has been telling me this for a long time. He's saying these guys have no clue what they're injecting into people's scalps. There really are ... Not all PRP is created equal. I know I'm repeating myself. The system really makes a lot of the difference. Also, I mean, stuff that's going to help to activate the PRP as well, whether you're using thrombin or I don't know how you guys activate the PRP.

Paul Rose, MD: Right, so we use a ... For when I do my hair transplantation patients, I actually don't use an activated system because I feel that the trauma that we cause by making the injections and the incision sites that we've made-

Spencer Kobren:   Is enough.

Paul Rose, MD:   ... should activate the PRP, but other people do use activated PRP, certainly. You're absolutely correct. Something that's just come up is I've had patients ask me now about CRP; cytokine-rich plasma. To my knowledge, I don't believe there are many studies out there that show a significant response from CRP. I don't know how well done those studies are, but I know that that's coming into the forefront, that people are using or are looking for now CRP. The fact is that in PRP, you're going to have a fair amount of cytokines as well. How much you need, hard to tell. We're back to trying to have a scientific approach to this, and unfortunately, I feel that people are putting monetary gain ahead of good science.