FAQ’s

Within Australia, in accordance with TGA regulation of PRP (blood and blood products), Alocuro will only sell a PRP system, PRP kits and procedural training to medical, dental practitioners and clinical research facilities. Registered nurses or nurse practitioners who are working with an Alocuro trained medical practitioner who will provide professional supervision of the PRP procedure and who will be responsible for patient care are also supplied. We are unable to supply all other health practitioners  or non-health practitioners - in line with the general TGA regulation of PRP procedures within Australia.

PRP is an abbreviation for Platelet Rich Plasma. Plasma is the liquid portion of blood which houses all the cellular components such as red and white blood cells, as well as platelets. PRP is simply plasma rich in platelets.

PRP is a non-surgical treatment to aid healing - used in many fields, including sports medicine and orthopaedics. In the field of non-surgical orthopaedics, PRP is injected into the affected region to stimulate and enhance cellular regeneration. PRP is a small portion of the patient's own blood that contains large doses of the body’s healing proteins that are stored in platelets. The medical term for these proteins is ‘Growth Factors’.

Based on current research, the following areas have been proven to be most responsive to PRP:

orthopaedic and sports related processes: tendonitis, tendinosis, partial tendon tears, ligament sprains or partial tears, and partial muscle tears that have not improved after conservative treatment - physiotherapy protocols, rest etc. PRP has also been effective at treating inflamed synovium and some areas of cartilage found in early to moderate osteoarthritis. PRP has been proven by many high quality clinical trials to reduce pain and improve joint function for osteoarthritic joints - especially knees.

dermatology: healing of skin wounds - acute traumatic and chronic, hard to heal wounds; cosmetic skin rejuvenation and scar minimisation

hair:  hair restoration in male and female pattern baldness, hair regrowth in auto-immune hair loss disorders

surgical : multiple surgical applications to assist wound, bone, muscle, tendon , ligament healing

dental: used with implants and for treating advanced periodontal disease.

Platelet Rich Plasma was first used in cardiac surgery in 1987 after an open heart operation to avoid blood transfusion. The next area in medicine to adopt the therapy was dental surgery where it has been safely used for over 20 years. More recently it has been utilised in plastic surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, implant surgery, and spinal fusion surgery. Latest advancements in technology have allowed the positive outcomes from these intra-operative applications to be replicated in the outpatient clinic setting. Incorporation of latest PRP research into clinical practice in the fields of orthopaedic, musculoskeletal, dermatology and wound healing applications has provided excellent non-surgical patient management with positive outcomes.

Alocuro is continually reviewing cutting-edge research, and observational data through clinical use to ensure that Alocuro’s PRP therapy protocols offer the patient the best possible outcome from PRO-PRP.

There is no current medical technique, product or device that can 100% guarantee it can ‘cure’ injured or degenerative tissue, nor is there any guarantee of Alocuro’s PRP therapy providing the desired healing outcome in every patient case. However, there have been over 10,000 published research articles on the use of PRP to improve healing in humans, and also veterinary applications. The best protocols and applications of PRP from the more recent research have been incorporated into Alocuro’s Pro-PRP system. When these protocols are followed, the patient’s own healing ability should be improved at the local injection or wound application site and it is hoped this will lead to a shorter recovery time with reduced pain and disability for their injury or chronic problem.

Alocuro’s PRO-PRP device and our specific protocol has been developed in conjunction with leading clinicians, biomedical engineers and scientists, to ensure that the PRP therapy can provide optimal healing benefit.

PRP therapy has gained significant media attention due to a number of high profile athletes crediting their fast recovery time and improved performance due to a reduction in pain from PRP therapy. Recent sporting personalities who have credited PRP therapy as the likely reason for their rapid return to tournament success include: golfer Tiger Woods, tennis players Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova and the late NBA star, Kobe Bryant.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) allow the use of PRP therapy in all applications for elite athletes ( 2014).

In order to benefit from these natural healing growth factors the platelets must first be concentrated. This is a brief summary of the Alocuro PRO-PRP protocol.

To prepare PRP, up to 60mls of blood is taken from the patient using a venepuncture technique, almost identical to having a standard blood collection for pathology testing. The blood sample is then carefully introduced into the Alocuro PRO-PRP device, which is then placed in a centrifuge. A specific protocol of centrifugation is used to isolate a platelet rich plasma (PRP) component of the blood from the whole blood sample. This PRP component is then extracted from the device and under strict aseptic conditions is carefully injected to the site of injured or degenerative tissue. The entire process takes less than 30 minutes, and can be completed as an outpatient procedure.