One of the most common questions in my office is some version of: will PRP (or BMAC, or microfat) work for me? The honest answer is that candidacy is about much more than what shows up on an MRI.
Disease severity matters most. Orthobiologics work best in early to moderate problems — a partial tendon tear rather than a complete one, mild to moderate arthritis rather than bone-on-bone joints that have lost their shape. When a problem is advanced and structural, biologic treatment can still help symptoms in some cases, but the expectations have to be honest. Sometimes the right answer is surgery, and part of my job is saying so.
Your overall health matters too. The same biologic building blocks that repair tissue respond to the environment they live in. Poorly controlled blood sugar, smoking, chronic inflammation, and poor sleep all blunt the body''s repair response. This is not a reason for discouragement — it is a reason these factors are part of the treatment plan, not an afterthought.
Mechanics matter. A knee that hurts because of how the leg loads when you walk will keep hurting after any injection unless the mechanics are addressed. That is why physician-directed physical therapy and movement assessment are built into how we practice, not bolted on afterward.
The good news: many of the factors that predict a better response are modifiable. When we identify them together, we can often improve your odds before treatment ever happens. That is what a real candidacy evaluation looks like — and it starts with a conversation and an examination, not a needle.