Thank you for your question. You’re asking your question the possibility of the micro
needling technique with Platelet-Rich Plasma and the risk of leaving scars on your face.
You described in the context of your question the – your propensity to have difficulty
with healing that you tend to get marks and pigmentation issues and then you end the question
with describing a diagnosis of absolute lymphocytopenia. I certainly can assist you in understanding
the risks and benefits of this procedure. I’m a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon practicing
in Manhattan in Long Island for over 20 years. I’ve been using PRP in the form of the Vampire
Facelift as well as on its own as an injection for improvement of skin quality, acne scars,
fine lines, pigmentations, under eye dark circles as well as in combination with the
material called extracellular matrix for the treatment of hair loss in men and women.
I am certainly very familiar with PRP and I think I can help you by giving you an understanding
of how I make my decision on whether to do PRP as a micro needling device – with a
micro needling device or to do it as an injection or in combination. Let’s start with that.
First of all, if someone like yourself comes to our practice. The first thing we want to
do is define the problem. There are people who come who want simply complexion improvement.
When it comes to complexion improvement, I find that the injection of PRP under the skin
has a tremendous value in creating a kind of a glow to the complexion. I think it’s
based very much on the basic idea, the PRP does stimulate the expansion and the vitality
of the fat cells that are under the skin. We all know that fat plays a very important
part in the health of the skin.
You can just think about you look at a younger person, they have more baby fat in their skin.
The skin has its nice volume and glow. What I find is for complexion alone the micro needling
is something that I would avoid and rather do the injection. When we talk about indications
for micro needling, sometimes it’s for very fine lines, sometimes it’s for acne scars,
but there is a flip side to that. There is also something more of a healing process because
micro needling we’re making tiny little openings in the skin. We get all these tiny
pinpoint openings that can have a little bit of bleeding, little bit of redness and although
it heals pretty quickly. I mean usually 24 to 48 hours, the areas look very, very good.
We also depend on the depth we set the micro needle to – and for what intention.
Basically the rule of thumb is the more deep we go, the longer the healing, the more the
inflammation but that’s what you need for sometimes for more aggressive treatment such
as in the case of acne scars. When we’re dealing with fine lines, superficial pigmentation,
we do it for like the chest area, the décolletage area and for the face for discromias or pigmentations
related to sun exposure in lighter skin people. It can be a value because we’re treating
the superficial pigmentation. I think in the situation like yours, if there needs to be
some superficial treatment, I might want to do a limited test area to see how you do before
putting you through the more extensive procedure. But it would be probably more likely that
I would do the injection rather than the micro needling because it puts, you’re considerably
lower risk for these pigmentation issues and these healing issues.
Of course you also have to be completely worked up for your absolute lymphocytopenia where
your hematologist is should be able to figure out why you have this and whether or not this
is a short term or a long term issue. Because certainly we do need lymphocytes for the healing
process and so that has to be understood and that has to be – I would typically be – I
would actually get some information or maybe discuss this with the hematologist before
doing something like what you’re entertaining. We have to look in the context of your situation
with your blood and the situation with your sensitivity of your skin. If there’s no
issue with the blood, I would probably go with the injection of PRP rather than micro
needling approach. With that being said, I hope that was helpful and wish you the best
of luck. Thank you for your question.