A standard hair transplantation procedure involves the removal of donor strip of hair from the back of the head from where the follicular unit grafts are dissected under a microscope. These grafts are then preserved in saline and are then transplanted on a bald patch on the crown area of the scalp. Please read on.
Given the time consuming and tedious nature of this procedure, a hair transplantation surgeon is often able to transplant only about 500 to 600 follicular unit grafts per day. However, thanks to the recent hair transplantation advances, this technique is often replaced by the follicular unit extraction (FUE).
The cost per graft of FUE is typically twice the cost of the standard follicular unit hair transplantation procedure discussed above but it is comparatively faster and minimally invasive.
Some Hair Transplantation Advances Achievement
In a typical FUE procedure a small round punch is made in the donor area to directly extract 1, 2, 3 and 4 hair follicular unit grafts. The follicular units extracted using this process is typically referred to as "blunt dissection" where a punch is made to envelope the entire follicular unit separating it from the surrounding soft tissues.
Once the underlying follicular unit is separated from the surrounding tissues, it is easily extracted using a small forceps. The small holes left behind after the follicular unit extraction gradually heal over the next few days and are not detectable to the naked eye once the patient's hair grows out. The healing time is much less than the donor strip extraction procedure.
While the FUE procedure has been carried out by most hair transplantation clinics, the standard strip excision method is still the most popular hair transplantation procedure because it is more economical than the FUE.
Furthermore, as a results from some recent hair transplantation advances such as the use of trichophytic closure technique, the linear donor scar created by the strip excision procedure is now often rendered almost undetectable to the naked eye. This advancement in the hair transplantation technique has made FUE procedure relatively less appealing.
