Questions about serum drops from Vissum in Alicante (Spain)

[Guest]

Questions for those who have been there:

1. What were the costs like?
2. Reading on their site, it appears they do platelet-rich autologous serum? I used to be on regular 100% autologous serum... does anyone have links to some good articles comparing the pros/cons of the two?

3. Any advice, tips, things you wish you'd known before you went etc?

4. Does Dr. Jorge Alió speak English? I'm hoping I luck out and he does indeed speak English, because I hardly speak any Spanish... would be great to know ahead of time what to expect

Thanks in advance!

[Meibum Ian]

Tried to PM you but seems you have that disabled..

[Guest]

Cost for me when I went there was about £250 for 12 bottles. This is way cheaper than in the uk where you have to pay about £1000 for 8 weeks...think that is why a lot of us go to Spain.

There are no good studies that I have found directly comparing the two but Alió has a paper saying a lot of people benefited for PRP in terms of staining. PRP seems to have more growth factor and a lot of docotrs I've talked to think it might be better than serum but people all react differently so....

Alio speaks English, not all the other staff do. Very friendly. He misdiagnosed me as having an autoimmume disease to start with but the second time he and I agreed I suffered from neuropathy.

[Alix]

Cost for me when I went there was about £250 for 12 bottles. This is way cheaper than in the uk where you have to pay about £1000 for 8 weeks...think that is why a lot of us go to Spain.

There are no good studies that I have found directly comparing the two but Alió has a paper saying a lot of people benefited for PRP in terms of staining. PRP seems to have more growth factor and a lot of docotrs I've talked to think it might be better than serum but people all react differently so....

Alio speaks English, not all the other staff do. Very friendly. He misdiagnosed me as having an autoimmume disease to start with but the second time he and I agreed I suffered from neuropathy.

How much was the consultation and how long does each bottle last? Also do you get the eye drops the same day as the consultation?

[Guest]

Cost for me when I went there was about £250 for 12 bottles.

Thanks so much for this info Lena - it's much appreciated. When you say 12 bottles, how much is in each bottle? 5 ml? 10 ml? 15 ml? Something else?

[Guest]

Cost for me when I went there was about £250 for 12 bottles. This is way cheaper than in the uk where you have to pay about £1000 for 8 weeks...think that is why a lot of us go to Spain.

There are no good studies that I have found directly comparing the two but Alió has a paper saying a lot of people benefited for PRP in terms of staining. PRP seems to have more growth factor and a lot of docotrs I've talked to think it might be better than serum but people all react differently so....

Alio speaks English, not all the other staff do. Very friendly. He misdiagnosed me as having an autoimmume disease to start with but the second time he and I agreed I suffered from neuropathy.

You nailed it from my understanding...prp is better for healing wounds. My doctor told me he’s had neovascularization of the cornea in some of his patients on prp. But I haven’t personally found any papers to support that claim. I think because prp can’t be frozen, or can’t be shaken (it coagulates), it’s just easier to use serum. If you don’t have any staining and it’s purely for comfort, I’d go with 100% or 50% serum. But I also understand that’s not what this threads about.

At the end of the day, you will be safe using prp for a few months. Hope you get the drops and they help you on your trip! I can’t imagine going a day without serum. Curious if they’ve responded yet.

[Meibum Ian]

Thanks so much for this info Lena - it's much appreciated. When you say 12 bottles, how much is in each bottle? 5 ml? 10 ml? 15 ml? Something else?

4ml. I get 4 or 5 days using 6x a day. Therefore you would have a month's supply using 4x a day

[Guest]

Yes the bottles are annoyingly small. I was using x6 a day and never quite got to the end of the week with just one. That was with 100% PRP however. They also changed the bottles and I found a few times with the new plastic ones a bit of debris would get stuck in the opening and squeezing to free it, it would burst all over my face! The glass bottles were better.

The first time I went I had the consultation then got the blood drawn and drops the next day. The second time was easier as they knew me so I did it all on one day, but arrived the night before. There is a bus from the town centre to Vissum so that was all easy. I think the consultation was maybe another £100.

[Guest]

Ps here is the paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5693817/

[Guest]

Awesome info from everyone so far! Thanks so much!!!

[Alix]

Yes the bottles are annoyingly small. I was using x6 a day and never quite got to the end of the week with just one. That was with 100% PRP however. They also changed the bottles and I found a few times with the new plastic ones a bit of debris would get stuck in the opening and squeezing to free it, it would burst all over my face! The glass bottles were better.

The first time I went I had the consultation then got the blood drawn and drops the next day. The second time was easier as they knew me so I did it all on one day, but arrived the night before. There is a bus from the town centre to Vissum so that was all easy. I think the consultation was maybe another £100.

Thank you it sounds like it is a relatively straightforward process and reasonably priced too!

[Guest]

This is all so helpful!

[Guest]

Tried to PM you but seems you have that disabled..

Sorry about that - all fixed now, and I sent you a PM! Hopefully you'll see it!