Platelet-Rich Fibrin in Facial Aesthetic Procedures: A Narrative Review of Healing and Rejuvenation Outcomes

Resumo

The use of autologous platelet concentrates in facial rejuvenation and harmonization procedures has grown steadily over the past decade, driven by their low cost, biocompatibility, and lack of exogenous additives (1). Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) — a second-generation platelet concentrate first described by Choukroun and colleagues (2) — releases mesenchymal cells, growth factors, and leukocytes at the application site, optimizing the tissue response to invasive and minimally invasive aesthetic procedures (3,4). When applied during the recovery period of procedures associated with edema, hematoma, pain, or infection, this optimized healing response has been reported to shorten recovery time and reduce the incidence of postoperative complications (5,6). This narrative review synthesizes evidence on PRF and its injectable form (i-PRF) as adjuvants in facial aesthetic recovery and rejuvenation, combining a foundational literature base (through 2021) with a structured update search (2022–2026) designed to test whether the field has since produced the long-term safety data and head-to-head comparisons the earlier literature lacked. Recent prospective studies using objective, ultrasound-based outcome measures corroborate the direction of effect reported by earlier clinician- and patient-rated studies, but the once-common claim that PRF is categorically superior to PRP is not supported by the best-available 2025 systematic evidence, which instead describes an indication-dependent trade-off between the two concentrates. Centrifugation protocol standardization remains an active area, with recent findings showing that equipment and consumables — not only nominal speed and time — materially affect the final product. Most consequentially, the absence of dedicated long-term (>12-month) safety data, already flagged by reviews published five years ago, persists in 2026 despite substantial growth in short-term efficacy literature; we identify this, together with a device-standardized head-to-head PRF-versus-PRP trial, as the field’s two highest-priority open studies.

Palavras-chave: Platelet-rich fibrin, Injectable platelet-rich fibrin, Platelet concentrates, Facial rejuvenation, Wound healing, Aesthetic dermatology