Plasma Therapy Procedures | Yunique Medical

Medically Reviewed by Larry Siegel, APRN

Plasma therapy procedures are reshaping what’s possible in both regenerative care and precision medicine. Some treatments, like PRP, target joints, tendons, or skin to accelerate repair and rejuvenation. Others, like therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE), work on a larger scale, filtering your entire plasma volume to remove the inflammatory debris that fuels chronic illness, immune dysfunction, and age-related decline.

You might be pursuing skin repair, injury recovery, or a full recalibration of your internal systems. Plasma-based therapies offer tools for all three. But each procedure operates differently. Some stay local. Others go systemic.

This guide breaks down the major types of plasma therapy, how they work, and when each one fits into a modern health strategy.

What Is Plasma Therapy?

Plasma therapy includes any procedure that works with this fluid to change how the body functions. Plasma is the delivery system for everything moving through your bloodstream:

immune signals
nutrients
hormones
cellular waste

When the body is inflamed, overloaded, or out of sync, plasma is often where the biological noise collects.

Some methods isolate components and reintroduce them into targeted tissue. Others remove the plasma itself and replace it with a clean solution to lower inflammation, offload toxins, or rebalance immune activity.

PRP tends to get the spotlight. But plasma therapy has expanded into immunology, chronic disease, and longevity medicine. Each procedure works differently, and understanding those differences is the first step toward finding the right tool for your goals.

What Are the Different Types of Plasma Therapy Procedures?

Plasma therapy is a category of medical procedures that work with plasma in different ways. Some are designed to support tissue repair. Others help manage inflammation, immune dysfunction, or infection. The goal may be local healing or a broader shift in biological function.

Understanding the different types of plasma therapy is the first step in learning how plasma therapy works in practice. Each method uses plasma differently, either by concentrating its components, filtering it, or transferring it between patients.

Most plasma therapies fall into one of four categories:

Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP): Uses a small sample of your blood, concentrates the platelets, and injects them into targeted tissue to support local repair. Common in orthopedics, sports medicine, and aesthetic medicine.
Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE), also called plasmapheresis: Removes your plasma, filters out harmful proteins and immune triggers, and replaces it with a clean solution. Often used in neurology, immunology, and longevity care.
Convalescent Plasma Therapy: Transfers antibody-rich plasma from someone who has recovered from an infection to someone still fighting it. Most often used during outbreaks of viral illness.
Plasma-Derived Biologics: Pharmaceutical products made from donated plasma, including IVIG (intravenous immunoglobulin), clotting factor concentrates, and albumin. Used in immune deficiency, autoimmune disease, and bleeding disorders.

What Is Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) and What Is It Used For?

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a procedure that concentrates platelets from your own blood and reinjects them into targeted tissue to promote healing. It’s often used to support recovery in joints, tendons, skin, or hair follicles.

The process starts with a small blood draw. A centrifuge separates the platelets from other components, creating a concentrated solution rich in growth factors. That solution is then injected into the area of concern to help stimulate tissue repair and reduce localized inflammation.

PRP is used in:

orthopedic injuries
tendon and ligament strain
hair restoration
facial rejuvenation
post-surgical recovery

It’s also one of the most well-known anti-aging plasma treatments, especially in the context of skin tone, texture, and collagen support.

Because the treatment uses your own blood, the risk of adverse reaction is low. It’s a simple, minimally invasive procedure with a strong safety profile.

Still, PRP is a localized tool. It does not treat systemic inflammation, immune dysfunction, or chronic disease. It works best when the goal is focused tissue repair and not whole-body intervention.

What Is Therapeutic Plasma Exchange (TPE) and When Is It Used?

Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE), sometimes called plasmapheresis, is a medical procedure that filters your plasma to reduce what’s interfering with healthy function. During the process, a portion of your plasma is removed and replaced with a clean, protein-rich solution. This helps lower the presence of immune triggers, inflammatory proteins, and waste that build up over time.

TPE is used in hospitals as first-line care for serious autoimmune and neurological conditions. It’s one of the most established forms of plasma therapy for chronic disease, especially in cases where the immune system turns against the body or inflammation spirals out of control, like:

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS)
myasthenia gravis
thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)

In recent years, it’s also being studied for a broader set of goals. Some patients use TPE to manage chronic illness or immune dysfunction. Others focus on the benefits of plasma therapy for longevity, using it as part of a long-term strategy to reduce biological stress and support healthier aging.

This procedure doesn’t add anything new to the body. Instead, it clears what’s working against it, so recovery, regulation, and repair have room to take over.

What Is Convalescent Plasma Therapy and Where Is It Used?

Convalescent plasma therapy uses the antibodies from someone who has already recovered from an illness. That plasma is collected and transfused into a person who is still fighting the same infection. The goal is to passively support the immune system while it works to clear the virus.

This method gained attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has also been used in past outbreaks of:

Ebola
H1N1 influenza
SARS
MERS

Convalescent plasma is typically reserved for severe or high-risk viral infections. It is not used as a long-term treatment and is rarely applied outside infectious disease care. The therapy is time-sensitive and depends on matching donors with the right antibody profile.

What Are Plasma-Derived Biologics and Who Needs Them?

Plasma-derived biologics are specialized medications made from pooled human plasma. After collection, the plasma is processed to isolate therapeutic proteins that the body needs for stability, immunity, or clotting.

Here are the most common forms:

IVIG (intravenous immunoglobulin): Used to regulate or support immune function in people with autoimmune disease or primary immune deficiency
Clotting factor concentrates: Used to prevent internal bleeding in patients with clotting disorders like hemophilia
Albumin therapies: Used to restore blood volume and pressure in cases of liver dysfunction, trauma, or major surgery

These treatments don’t alter your existing plasma. Instead, providers use them to restore specific proteins your body no longer produces in adequate amounts. Most patients receive them in hospitals or infusion clinics as part of ongoing care.

Clinicians use plasma-derived biologics to treat serious immunologic, hematologic, or metabolic conditions when the missing factor can’t be replaced through diet or standard medication.

How Do These Plasma Therapies Compare?

Plasma therapies fall into two clear categories: local repair or systemic intervention.

PRP works at the surface, injecting growth factors into specific tissues. TPE clears the bloodstream itself, removing inflammatory triggers that disrupt the entire system. Convalescent plasma transfers antibodies to fight infection. Plasma-derived biologics supply critical proteins your body can’t make on its own.

Here’s a side-by-side breakdown to help you see how each therapy functions, what it targets, and when it’s used:

Therapy Type	Target	Method	Use Case
PRP	Local	Injection	Injury, aesthetics
TPE	Systemic	Filtration & replacement	Autoimmunity, chronic illness, longevity
Convalescent	Immune Transfer	Plasma infusion	Acute viral infections
Biologics	Immune Modulation	IV drug	Immune/bleeding disorders

PRP treats the surface. TPE targets the whole system. Others work in between. The choice depends on what you’re trying to shift: tissue repair, immune regulation, or systemic inflammation.

When Should You Consider Plasma Therapy as Part of Your Health Plan?

It depends on what you’re actually trying to change: a single damaged joint, or the blood chemistry behind months of symptoms.

PRP is a strong fit for:

joint pain
tendon injuries
thinning hair
surface-level tissue damage

TPE makes more sense for:

autoimmune activity
chronic fatigue
brain fog
post-viral flare-ups

Biologics and convalescent plasma are typically used when:

immune systems are compromised
clotting factors are deficient
infection recovery requires antibody support

The real benefits of plasma therapy in longevity care show up when you target the circulating signals that drive fatigue, immune dysfunction, and metabolic wear long before they show up as disease.

Reclaim Control at the System Level

You don’t fix chronic inflammation by masking symptoms. You resolve it by changing what your body circulates, what it flags as danger, what it can’t clear, what keeps your immune system on edge.

That’s the difference plasma-based strategies make when you stop thinking in surface layers. They give you the tools to:

reduce the inflammatory load that keeps your system in defense mode
shift immune signaling toward balance and repair
offload toxic proteins that interfere with mitochondrial function
create space for deeper interventions to take hold

Precision health isn’t about stacking therapies. It’s about removing the blocks that keep your biology stuck. Plasma is where many of those blocks live.
If your labs tell a story of unresolved inflammation, metabolic strain, or immune confusion, your next move isn’t more guesswork. It’s finding out what your plasma is carrying and what your body could do without it.

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Plasma Therapy Procedures | PRP, TPE, and Other Plasma-Based Treatments Explained