The Patient's Guide to Hair Restoration - New Hair Institute

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Many of the cosmetic defects created by poor techniques can be completely reversed or “partially undone” by meticulously removing and reimplanting unsightly grafts. However, the main factor that often prevents the surgeon from achieving all of the patient’s restorative goals is a limited donor supply. Hair wastage due to poor surgical techniques is usually the main cause of this donor supply depletion. The early telltale signs of hair wastage may be a transplant that appears too thin for the number of grafts used, poor growth manifested as gaps at the hairline, or uneven density in areas where the coverage should be uniform. The fact that donor hair was wasted might be surmised from a longer donor incision than one would expect for a given number of grafts, or abnormally low density in the donor area in the vicinity of the donor scar. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to ascertain exactly what the underlying causes had been after the fact and, by the time surgeon is aware that he has run out of usable donor hair, the damage has already been done. Because adequate donor supply is so critical to a successful repair, accurately assessing the amount of hair available becomes paramount. When performing a hair transplant on a virgin scalp, quantifying the donor supply is rather straightforward, since the density and scalp laxity are relatively uniform in the donor area. In repairs, however, additional factors come into play, so that even though there might appear to be enough hair in the donor area, it might not be available to the surgeon for use. Factors that limit the available donor hair include: • Low donor density, • Fine hair caliber, • Poor scalp mobility, and • Scarring. Low Donor Density Donor hair density can be measured using a simple hand-held device called a Densitometer. The average Caucasian has approximately 2.0 hairs/mm2, but this can vary from as little as 1.5 hairs/mm2 to greater than 3 hairs/mm2. In most individuals, the density of follicular units in one’s scalp (follicular unit density) is relatively constant at 1 follicular unit/mm2. After hair transplantation procedures, the average density in the donor area decreases. Unfortunately, after poor hair transplant surgery, there isn’t a corresponding increase in hair in the recipient areas of the scalp. In modern strip harvesting, the resulting linear scar gives little indication of the strip's actual size, as it only reflects the length of the excised strip and not its width. Thus, the actual amount of tissue that had been removed cannot readily be ascertained. Using densitometry, this information can be measured by looking at the increased spacing of follicular units. The percent of measured decrease in follicular unit density will give an indication of how much tissue had been removed and more important, how much is left to harvest. You cannot obtain this information from measuring hair density alone if it had not been measured before the surgery. Unfortunately, doctors who perform bad hair transplants rarely pay
attention to measuring hair density, and even less commonly record it in the patient’s file. ine Hair Caliber Although not affected by the transplant, hair shaft diameter is an extremely important contributor to hair volume and thus the available hair supply. Hair shaft diameter is mentioned less often than the actual number of hairs because it is more difficult to measure, but its importance to both the virgin transplant and to a repair cannot be overemphasized. Variations in hair shaft diameter have an approximately 2.7 times greater impact on the appearance of fullness than the absolute number of hairs. The importance of this in a repair is that, for a given degree of plugginess, fine hair will provide less camouflage than coarser hair. Fine hair, therefore, must be transplanted in greater numbers, or in multiple sessions, to achieve the same results. When this quantity of hair is not available, compromises must be made in the repair. This important issue should be discussed with patients who have fine hair prior to the repair, so that priorities can be established in advance. Poor Scalp Mobility Donor density and hair shaft diameter are not the only factors affecting the available donor supply. In order for an adequate amount of hair to be harvested, there needs to be sufficient scalp laxity (looseness) to close the wound after the donor strip is removed. Especially when there is low donor density, having adequate laxity is especially important because a widened scar may be visible through the thin hair. The location of the donor incision greatly affects scalp mobility. The ideal position for the donor incision is in the mid-portion of the permanent zone. The muscles of the neck insert into the deeper tissues of the scalp just below that area. The problem is that an incision placed below this area will be affected by the muscle movement directly beneath it. A stretched scar in this location is extremely difficult to repair since re-excision, even with undermining and layered closure, will tend to heal with an even wider scar. The main risk of placing the scars too high is the lack of permanence of the transplanted hair (it may be subject to androgenetic alopecia), and future visibility of the scar if the donor fringe were to narrow further. Scarring Scarring in the donor area limits the amount of hair accessible to the surgeon for a number of reasons. The most obvious reason is that a larger donor strip must be removed to harvest the same amount of hair. The second, mentioned above, is that scarring decreases scalp laxity by destroying elastic tissue and often destroying the subcutaneous layer causing the scalp skin to be bound down to the deeper tissues. The third is that scars themselves present cosmetic problems when visible, so more donor hair must be left to cover a scarred area than to cover normal scalp. The presence of open donor scars, made by the old punch technique may give a false sense of security. Because an excision with a primary closure was not performed, the patient’s donor laxity has not been compromised. This thinking may lure the unwary surgeon into harvesting a donor strip that is too wide. When the surgeon attempts to close the donor wound, the tight closure
Page 1 and 2:
The Patient’s Guide to Hair Resto
Page 3 and 4:
egan this practice and may have ado
Page 5 and 6:
vellus hair to the dense, thick hai
Page 7 and 8:
the hair follicle is able to regene
Page 9 and 10:
visible in a particular individual,
Page 11 and 12:
Clogged Pores This claim usually ac
Page 13 and 14:
Chapter 4 How Bald Will I Be? For m
Page 15 and 16:
Chapter 5 Drugs to Prevent Hair Los
Page 17 and 18:
In January 1998, the FDA approved f
Page 19 and 20:
Finasteride has now been in clinica
Page 21 and 22:
of these physicians were published
Page 23 and 24:
cells. If the graft is too large, t
Page 25 and 26:
The donor grafts obtained by the pu
Page 27 and 28:
In addition to the variation of siz
Page 29 and 30:
Chapter 7 What is Follicular Unit T
Page 31 and 32:
of the scalp is extensive, the dama
Page 33 and 34:
Cost per procedure More Less Total
Page 35 and 36:
short-term loss, but rarely affects
Page 37 and 38:
of hair is less noticeable than goi
Page 39 and 40: lose 70% of the hair on the top of
Page 41 and 42: unit grafts into very small recipie
Page 43 and 44: egarding whether to add additional
Page 45 and 46: Hair bulk, or hair shaft diameter,
Page 47 and 48: 5A 2000-2400+ --- 6 2000-2400+ 2400
Page 49 and 50: emainder of the procedure. If you d
Page 51 and 52: The night of the surgery and for a
Page 53 and 54: The results of this study, recently
Page 55 and 56: 5-10 Months Some or all of the orig
Page 57 and 58: Disadvantages: Necrosis The worst p
Page 59 and 60: entire strip (or portions of it) is
Page 61 and 62: Scalp Expansion and Scalp Extension
Page 63 and 64: them, simple, direct pressure will
Page 65 and 66: Chapter 13 Hair Systems In this cha
Page 67 and 68: Metal clips or snaps can be sewn to
Page 69 and 70: inflammation may destroy the scalp
Page 71 and 72: NHI often uses actual patients to e
Page 73 and 74: patient’s hair density is below a
Page 75 and 76: estoration process to this point wi
Page 77 and 78: Chapter 16 The Psychology of Hair R
Page 79 and 80: Chapter 17 Determining Quality and
Page 81 and 82: more common than anyone is willing
Page 83 and 84: estrogen and progesterone. A portio
Page 85 and 86: Chapter 19 Repairing Bad Hair Trans
Page 87 and 88: left with the dilemma of choosing b
Page 89: damage is done to surrounding tissu
Page 93 and 94: There are two basic repair strategi
Page 95 and 96: eserves and centrally placed grafts
Page 97 and 98: the visible stubble may direct the
Page 99 and 100: searching in other parts of the sca
Page 101 and 102: scalp while utilizing a minimal amo
Page 103 and 104: have had a chance to mature, the sc
Page 105 and 106: • Suturing with large bites • N
Page 107 and 108: A Final Word on Repair The physicia
Page 109 and 110: specialty certifications available,
Page 111 and 112: hairs in the larger grafts that sur
Page 113 and 114: as part of the informed consent pro
Page 115 and 116: Chapter 21 When to be Suspicious So
Page 117 and 118: Chapter 22 Common Fallacies in Hair
Page 119 and 120: the patient’s needs, as the hair
Page 121: • Hair transplantation is moderat
show all

The Patient's Guide to Hair Restoration - New Hair Institute

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?