What to bring and what to ask at a PRP visit

What to tell the doctor first

Name a daily task the soreness has made hard. It could be walking, rising from a chair, or sleeping on one shoulder. Say where it hurts and whether it swells, catches, or gives way. Tell the doctor what makes it better.

Then describe what you've tried. Include how long you did therapy and which exercises helped. Mention braces, medicine, and past joint shots. If something helped, say when the ache returned. Don't leave out a recent fall or sudden pop.

Clear details work like a short note on a repair order. They tell the doctor where to start the exam.

What to ask before setting a date

Ask what your doctor learned during the exam. Find out whether an X-ray would help. Have the doctor explain why PRP fits the joint or tendon. Ask who gives the shot and exactly where it goes. If the answer isn't clear, ask again.

Talk about medicines next. Aspirin, blood thinners, and other drugs need review. Keep taking prescribed medicine until its managing doctor says otherwise. Mention an active infection or any bleeding problem. Also mention a blood test that found too few platelets, which are cells that help stop bleeding.

Ask what soreness or swelling to expect afterward. You'll need dates for driving, work, and exercise too.

When to get help after the visit

Keep the care instructions and an after-hours number nearby. You may have mild swelling and soreness for several days. Ask what's normal for the shot you received.

Get urgent help for rising soreness with heat or redness. Drainage or fever also needs quick care. Calf swelling after rest can mean a clot. New weakness, numbness, or bladder trouble with back soreness needs fast help too.

The visit isn't over until you know what happens next.

Sources

1. A systematic review of 105 clinical PRP studies in orthopaedics published 2006-2016 found that only 11 (10%) described the preparation protocol clearly enough for another investigator to repeat it, and only 17 (16%) reported any quantitative metric of the final PRP composition. The authors concluded that the current reporting of PRP preparation and composition does not allow the PRP products actually delivered to patients to be compared between studies.

   Chahla J, Cinque ME, Piuzzi NS, et al. — A Call for Standardization in Platelet-Rich Plasma Preparation Protocols and Composition Reporting: A Systematic Review of the Clinical Orthopaedic Literature. Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American), 2017. DOI: 10.2106/JBJS.16.01374.

2. A prospective fixed-sequence controlled laboratory study in healthy men found that daily low-dose aspirin significantly reduced release of VEGF, PDGF-AB and TGF-beta1 from freshly isolated leukocyte-rich PRP when activated with arachidonic acid. This is the mechanistic basis for the routine instruction to review antiplatelet and NSAID use before a PRP draw - and the authors noted clinical studies are still needed to establish how much this matters in vivo.

   Jayaram P, Yeh P, Patel SJ, et al. — Effects of Aspirin on Growth Factor Release From Freshly Isolated Leukocyte-Rich Platelet-Rich Plasma in Healthy Men: A Prospective Fixed-Sequence Controlled Laboratory Study. American Journal of Sports Medicine, 2019. DOI: 10.1177/0363546519827294.

3. PATH-2 randomised 230 adults with acute Achilles tendon rupture managed non-surgically to PRP or a placebo dry-needle injection across 19 UK hospitals, with a central laboratory confirming the PRP was of good quality with the expected growth-factor content. At 24 weeks there was no detectable difference in muscle-tendon function (limb symmetry index 34.7% versus 38.5%; adjusted mean difference -3.9%; 95% CI -10.5% to 2.7%) or in any secondary outcome or adverse-event rate.

   Keene DJ, Alsousou J, Harrison P, et al. — Platelet rich plasma injection for acute Achilles tendon rupture: PATH-2 randomised, placebo controlled, superiority trial. BMJ, 2019. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.l6132.

4. The American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation convened a technical expert panel that ran a structured literature review (2023, updated through June 2025) and a modified Delphi process, and issued five evidence-based clinical recommendations plus 11 consensus-based best practices for PRP in knee osteoarthritis. The statement is explicit that orthobiologic therapies 'remain an evolving area of practice' and that robust, dose-dependent randomized controlled trials are still needed to establish PRP's clinical effects.

   Borg-Stein J, Jayaram P, Colorado BS, et al. — AAPM&R guidance statement on platelet rich plasma for knee osteoarthritis. PM&R, 2026. DOI: 10.1002/pmrj.70144.

5. The ESSKA-ICRS consensus applied the RAND/UCLA appropriateness method to 216 clinical scenarios for intra-articular PRP in knee OA. Only 84 scenarios (38.9%) were rated appropriate, 9 (4.2%) inappropriate and 123 (56.9%) uncertain. PRP was judged appropriate in patients aged 80 or under with KL grade 0-III osteoarthritis AFTER failed conservative non-injective or injective treatment; it was NOT considered appropriate as a first treatment, nor in KL grade IV (bone-on-bone) osteoarthritis, where 91.7% and 87.5% of scenarios respectively were uncertain.

   Kon E, de Girolamo L, Laver L, et al. — Platelet-rich plasma injections for the management of knee osteoarthritis: The ESSKA-ICRS consensus. Recommendations using the RAND/UCLA appropriateness method for different clinical scenarios. Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy, 2024. DOI: 10.1002/ksa.12320.