Closed vs open PRP system
Closed systems keep blood in sealed single-use kits throughout processing, minimising contamination risk; open systems use manual pipetting in standard tubes — cheaper, but demanding strict aseptic technique.
Closed and open describe how exposed blood is during PRP preparation. In a closed system, blood travels from draw to final preparation inside a sealed, single-use kit engineered for the purpose; processing happens through integrated ports and separators, and ambient air never contacts the product. In an open system, standard tubes are spun and the layers are transferred by manual pipetting — the product is open to the room at every transfer.
The trade-offs are plain. Closed kits minimise contamination risk, standardise the procedure, and usually carry device certification that regulators and insurers recognise — at a meaningful cost per session. Open workflows are far cheaper per patient and more flexible, but they transfer the entire sterility burden from the kit manufacturer to the clinic: aseptic technique, a suitable preparation environment, trained hands and honest process discipline, repeated identically every session. Consumable logistics differ too: kits tie a clinic to one supplier’s pricing and availability, while tube workflows source components independently.
Regulation frequently decides the question before economics can. Jurisdictions differ on what blood handling outside sealed devices requires of premises, personnel and product certification — and marketing a service on kit branding while quietly preparing in open tubes is the kind of gap between claim and practice that audits exist to find. The first operational step is therefore not procurement but reading: what does the regulator require for autologous blood preparation, and what does the clinic’s insurance actually cover?
Clinics that run open systems well treat them as laboratory work: dedicated clean workspace, a written aseptic protocol, batch documentation of tubes and anticoagulant, and an incident log nobody edits after the fact. Clinics that buy closed kits still own the remaining variables — draw quality, spin settings, timing and injection technique. The kit decides how much sterility is engineered in; it has never decided whether the medicine is practised well.