PRP Microneedling (the ‘Vampire Facial’): What the Evidence Shows
Not yet medically reviewed. This page has not been reviewed by a licensed professional. It summarises published research, cited below, and is not medical advice. Medical disclaimer
For atrophic acne scars, adding platelet-rich plasma (PRP) to microneedling has done somewhat better than microneedling alone in most published comparisons, but those studies are small, mostly unblinded, short and of low quality. An independent 2024 overview of 15 systematic reviews graded the certainty of that evidence “low” to “very low”. For wrinkles and aging skin the picture is weaker: a randomized trial that compared PRP with saline on opposite sides of the face found no improvement on either side. There is no home version, because PRP is made from your own blood, drawn and spun in a clinic.
The largest documented harm came from infection control rather than from PRP itself. A CDC investigation linked HIV infections to PRP microneedling facials given at an unlicensed New Mexico spa in 2018.
What a vampire facial actually is
PRP is defined in a 2018 dermatology review (Alves and Grimalt, Barcelona) as a portion of the plasma from your own blood with a platelet concentration above baseline. A clinician draws blood, spins it in a centrifuge to separate the plasma from the red cells, and the platelet-rich layer is either injected into the skin, spread over it during or after microneedling, or both. Platelets release growth factors, which is the rationale for adding them to a procedure that already works by wounding the skin to prompt repair.
“Vampire Facial” is a registered US trademark. USPTO records list registration 4,402,898 (granted 17 September 2013, renewed in 2024) to Charles E. Runels, Jr., covering a “non-invasive cosmetic medical procedure using topically applied blood-derived growth factors including platelet rich fibrin matrix on the skin for rejuvenation of the skin”. A separate mark, “Vampire Facelift” (registration 3,965,319), covers injecting those growth factors into the face. Clinics and articles use “vampire facial” loosely for any PRP-plus-microneedling treatment, and this page does the same when it means the generic procedure.
Most people searching the term also meet the claim that it is unproven. A thread titled “TIL ‘Vampire facial’ is a popular, unproven anti-aging treatment” in r/todayilearned has a snippet describing it as injecting components of your own blood into your face. For acne scars that label is too strong; for anti-aging it is close to what the controlled data show.
Acne scars: what the trials found
Nearly every head-to-head study is a split-face design: one half of the face gets microneedling plus PRP, the other half microneedling plus nothing, saline, distilled water or another product. That controls for skin type and scar type within one person. It also means the patient, and often the assessor, knows which side got which.
| Study | Design and size | Comparison | Blinding and follow-up (as stated in the abstract) | Result as reported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chawla 2014, India | Split-face; 30 enrolled, 27 completed | Microneedling + PRP vs microneedling + vitamin C; 4 monthly sessions | Not stated | “Excellent” response 18.5% on the PRP side vs 7% on the vitamin C side; poor response 22.2% vs 37%. Vitamin C did better on post-acne dark marks. One patient dropped out with severe hyperpigmentation |
| Asif 2016, India | Split-face; 50 | Microneedling + PRP (injected and topical) vs microneedling + injected distilled water; 3 monthly sessions | Not stated | 62.2% vs 45.8% improvement on Goodman’s quantitative scale |
| Ibrahim 2018, Egypt | Split-face; 35 | Microneedling + topical PRP vs microneedling alone; 4 sessions 3 weeks apart | Two blinded dermatologists | Both sides improved; no significant difference in patient satisfaction; authors call both “satisfactory” |
| El-Domyati 2018, Egypt | 24 volunteers randomized to 3 pairings, one treatment per side | Dermaroller alone vs dermaroller + PRP vs dermaroller + 15% TCA peel; 6 sessions 2 weeks apart | Biopsies and photos 3 months after treatment | PRP and TCA sides both beat dermaroller alone; the TCA combination was judged most effective for scars |
| Nandini 2021, India | Split-face; 30 | Microneedling + PRP vs microneedling alone; 4 monthly sessions | Physician-assessed; blinding not stated | “Excellent” response 43% vs 20% |
| Gupta 2021, India | Split-face; 36 | Microneedling + topical PRP vs microneedling alone; 4 monthly sessions | Not stated | Scar counts and ECCA scores fell on both sides with no significant difference (P = 0.094 and 0.058); “no added advantage” of topical PRP |
| Damodaran 2026, India | Split-face; 64; non-randomized | Microneedling + PRP vs microneedling alone; 3 sessions 4 weeks apart | Not fully blinded; assessed 1 month after the last session | PRP side improved significantly more |
Two patterns stand out. The two trials that applied PRP only to the surface (Ibrahim, Gupta) found no clear advantage, while the one that injected it as well (Asif) reported the largest gap; no trial has compared the delivery methods directly for facial scars. And none of these abstracts reports an assessment later than about three months after the last session, so how long any extra benefit lasts is unknown.
Some of what is indexed as a “split-face comparative study” is thinner still. A 2019 Skinmed paper with that title reports two patients.
What the meta-analyses add
Pooling these studies gives a consistent direction with weak foundations:
- Long and colleagues (2020) pooled 8 studies with 311 participants and found microneedling or subcision with PRP produced significantly lower scar-severity scores than the same procedures without it.
- Kang and Lu (2022) pooled 4 randomized and 10 non-randomized split-face studies (472 patients). Adding PRP roughly tripled the odds of more than 50% improvement on Goodman’s qualitative scale (odds ratio 2.97) and raised satisfaction, with no significant difference in severe redness or swelling.
- Cruciani and colleagues (2024), from Italy’s National Blood Centre, reviewed 15 of these systematic reviews, built on 34 primary studies. They found most reviews were of low methodological quality, none graded the certainty of its evidence, and when they graded it themselves it came out low to very low because of bias, inconsistency and imprecision. Their conclusion: the evidence “does not support clear clinical decision” about adding PRP.
- Li and colleagues (2024), a network meta-analysis of 24 randomized trials (1,546 participants), ranked microneedling plus a chemical peel above microneedling plus PRP, hyaluronic acid or botulinum toxin, with no significant differences in redness, pain or hyperpigmentation between treatments.
So PRP is not the strongest add-on in the one analysis that compared add-ons against each other. Its rank depends on very few direct comparisons.
Aging skin and wrinkles: the weakest evidence
The strongest-designed study here found nothing. In a 2024 Mayo Clinic trial (Pincelli and colleagues), 18 women were randomized to PRP injections on one side of the face and saline on the other, with the whole face microneedled afterward. At 16 and 24 weeks there was no improvement in laxity, wrinkles or roughness on either side, and the two sides changed similarly. The authors suggest the participants’ age (over 45) and insensitive measures may have contributed.
Other data point both ways:
- A 2018 Egyptian study (El-Domyati and colleagues, 24 volunteers with sun-damaged skin) found dermaroller plus PRP and dermaroller plus a TCA peel both beat dermaroller alone, with biopsy changes in collagen favoring the PRP side.
- A 2025 study from the American University of Beirut treated the under-eye area with PRP plus microneedling in 13 people. Participants reported better texture and evenness, but three blinded dermatologists rating standardized photos found no significant change at three months. There was no control group.
- A 2025 systematic review of PRP and platelet-rich fibrin for facial rejuvenation (20 studies, 514 patients, PRP used alone rather than with microneedling) found improvement reported in 80% of studies measuring skin thickness and 75% measuring elasticity, but only 40% of those on wrinkles and none on hydration.
People asking about under-eye PRP are asking the question the Beirut study tried to answer. A thread titled “NYC under eye PRP / vampire facial” in r/PlasticSurgery has a snippet asking whether anyone has thoughts on the effectiveness of the procedure.
Before and after: what the photos can and can’t show
Searches for PRP microneedling before-and-after photos are common, and the Beirut study is a direct test of what photos show. Patients saw improvement; blinded experts rating standardized photos of the same faces did not. In the acne-scar trials, the scored outcomes come from graded scales applied by physicians, often the treating ones. A clinic’s gallery has none of those controls unless it says so: no untreated comparison side, no blinded rater, and no stated interval since the last session.
Other uses
- Hair loss. A 2025 systematic review compared PRP injected into the scalp with PRP applied over microneedling for androgenetic alopecia. Only three studies qualified. The combination with microneedling appeared better, and the authors call for higher-quality studies with a uniform protocol.
- Melasma. A 2022 systematic review (Sarkar and Gupta) found seven studies, mostly of injected PRP, and could not pool them because the methods differed too much. Microneedling-delivered PRP had been “tried” with good results.
“PRP” is not one product
Two clinics can both sell a “PRP facial” and put very different preparations on your face.
- Spin protocols differ. A 2018 review from NYU Langone found “significant variation” in preparation protocols and in the number and frequency of treatments across 22 studies, and said it was unclear how much that variation affects results.
- Platelet concentration differs. A 2024 review of 75 randomized trials (5,726 patients) across medical and aesthetic specialties found wide variability in centrifugation protocols and platelet concentrations, and proposed a scoring system for reporting PRP quality.
- Equipment matters. A 2026 study from Karachi measured PRP made three ways. Commercial PRP centrifuge systems produced a mean platelet concentration of 835 ×10⁹/L; a routine laboratory centrifuge, when the whole supernatant was collected, produced 25.5 ×10⁹/L.
- Recommendations exist but are not universal. The Indian Association of Dermatologists’ PRP task force (2021) recommends a two-spin manual method (100–300 g for 5–10 minutes, then 400–700 g for 10–17 minutes) and a target of 1–1.5 million platelets per microliter. That is one professional body’s guidance, not a standard every clinic follows.
None of the acne-scar trials above can tell you what your clinic’s PRP contains. Asking which system they use and whether they measure platelet counts is a reasonable question; few published trials answer it either.
Safety: the New Mexico HIV cluster
In summer 2018 the New Mexico Department of Health was notified of an HIV diagnosis in a woman with no known risk factors who had received a PRP microneedling facial at a spa that spring. The CDC’s 2024 report on the investigation identified five people with genetically linked HIV: four former spa clients who had all received PRP microneedling there in 2018, and the sexual partner of one of them, who never visited the spa. The two partners’ infections were judged likely to predate the spa visits, so the evidence points to transmission at the spa for three patients. The source of contamination was never identified, and investigators were not allowed to collect specimens from the spa.
What the report does establish: the spa’s owner operated without the appropriate licenses at multiple locations, did not follow recommended infection control, and kept no proper client records, so investigators had to rebuild a client list from consent forms and handwritten appointment notes. In all, 198 former clients and their sexual partners were tested during 2018–2023, and no further HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C infections were found. The CDC calls it the first report to associate HIV transmission with nonsterile cosmetic injection services, and recommends requiring infection control and client records at spas offering them.
That thread, titled “‘Vampire facial’ at New Mexico spa tied to 2 HIV cases” in r/Esthetics, dates from 2019, when only two cases were known; the count reached five by 2023. Our safety guide covers the same report in its section on infection.
Two practical facts follow from the report itself. The spa was unlicensed, which is checkable before booking with your state’s licensing board. And the investigation was hampered because nobody could tell who had been treated, so a provider that keeps records of every client is one that can contact you if something goes wrong.
Other reported side effects
The trials report the usual microneedling effects: redness, swelling and, in some patients, darkening of the skin. In Kang and Lu’s pooled data, PRP added no extra severe redness or swelling. Case reports describe painful swollen neck lymph nodes shortly after a PRP microneedling session (a 2019 New York report) and eczema herpeticum, a widespread herpes skin infection, after the treatment for acne scars (a 2022 report from China). Case reports show these can happen, not how often.
Who should not have it
No regulator publishes a contraindication list specific to PRP microneedling that we could find. Clinics apply the microneedling list, which the FDA publishes and our safety guide sets out against the trial evidence: active skin infection or a cold-sore outbreak, bleeding disorders, blood thinners, pregnancy, immune suppression, keloid history and others. A blood draw adds the usual venipuncture considerations, which are for the treating clinician to assess. Aftercare is the same as for plain microneedling; see our aftercare guide.
Can you do a vampire facial at home?
No. PRP is your own blood, drawn by venipuncture and centrifuged, and nothing sold off the shelf contains it. The closest thing we could verify is a London clinic, Clinicbe, whose page describes a “PRP serum” for “DIY skin and hair treatment at home”, supplied in a cool bag with a DermaStamp. That still starts with a blood draw at the clinic, and it is a UK service.
Retail serums sold with “vampire”, “PRP” or “platelet” in the name are a different thing: none contains your blood. Some brands say they use platelet extracts from donated human blood; we could not load their pages to check those claims, so none is named here. No study in the tables above tested a retail serum. Whether a home microneedling pen is cleared for that use is a separate question, covered on our FDA lookup.
What does a vampire facial cost?
Unverified. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ current statistics report (2025) gives no fee for PRP or PRP microneedling that we could find, and earlier ASPS fee tables are no longer on its site. Clinic price lists exist but vary by city, by how many sessions a package includes, and by whether the PRP is injected as well as applied. We have not verified any of them, so none is quoted here. Most acne-scar trials used three to six sessions, which is the number to multiply by when comparing quotes.
FAQ
Does PRP microneedling work? For acne scars, probably a little better than microneedling alone, on low-certainty evidence from small, short, mostly unblinded studies. For wrinkles and aging skin, a randomized trial comparing PRP with saline found no benefit on either side.
Is “Vampire Facial” a brand name? Yes. It is a registered US service mark owned by Charles E. Runels, Jr. (registration 4,402,898). Many clinics use the phrase for any PRP microneedling treatment.
How many sessions do studies use? Three to six. The acne-scar trials in this guide spaced sessions 2 to 4 weeks apart.
Is a vampire facial safe? The trials report the expected microneedling side effects, with no extra severe redness or swelling from PRP in pooled data. The serious risk is infection control: HIV was transmitted at an unlicensed New Mexico spa offering these facials.
Can I buy PRP serum for home microneedling? No product sold over the counter is PRP. PRP is made from your own blood in a clinic.
Sources
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- USPTO TSDR, VAMPIRE FACIAL, serial 85827072, registration 4402898 (status “LIVE/REGISTRATION/Issued and Active”, renewed 2024-03-07; checked 2026-10-06): https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn85827072
- USPTO TSDR, VAMPIRE FACELIFT, serial 85127646, registration 3965319 (checked 2026-10-06): https://tsdr.uspto.gov/statusview/sn85127646
- American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 2025 Procedural Statistics Release (no PRP fee found; checked 2026-10-06): https://www.plasticsurgery.org/documents/news/statistics/2025/plastic-surgery-statistics-report-2025.pdf
- Clinicbe, PRP Serum – DIY Platelet Rich Plasma At Home (page description quoted; checked 2026-10-06): https://www.clinicbe.com/prp-serum-diy-platelet-rich-plasma-at-home/