Tag: surgery

How Many Hair Transplant Grafts Do You Need?

When you shop for a hair transplant surgeon, you will find that different doctors give widely varying estimates of the number of grafts you will need. This can make you very uncertain about the wisdom of even getting a hair transplant. It helps to have a fair idea of what to expect.

Unfortunately, there are hair transplant surgeons who do not take their position of respect seriously. Some doctors are even transplanting donor hair into areas where the patient still has hair. Perhaps this is easier than placing it where it rightfully belongs – on the balding spots.

For whatever reason, some hair transplant patients are not getting the number of grafts on their balding areas as they are billed. This is testified by certain doctors who have seen the results. The density of hair on these patients’ heads is not commensurate with the number of grafts they supposedly got.

The best hope a patient has of getting what he pays for in a hair transplant is to learn to calculate the number of grafts he needs to cover his balding area. If the surgeon he sees is not in that ballpark, it may be wiser to look for another surgeon. If however, the surgeon estimates a similar number, just make sure all the grafts go onto the balding parts of your scalp.

To calculate the number of grafts you need for hair transplant surgery, there are several factors to take into account. The thickness of the hair shaft makes a difference. Whether the hair is curly or straight determines if the hair will lie flat or stand up, creating more fullness.

Another important factor for hair transplant is the color of the hair in contrast to the color of the skin. For a light-skinned man with light-colored hair, or a dark-skinned man with dark colored hair, it takes a certain amount of hair to cover the baldness. However, a light-skinned man with very dark hair will need much more hair to provide the same amount of coverage.

You should figure that the average number of hair transplant grafts needed to cover a balding area is 25% of the original hair that was there. You can move up or down from this figure according to your other factors such as thickness, curliness, or color. Then, you can use this number to figure up the grafts needed.

Based on the fact that the average Caucasian male has a density of 2 hairs per millimeter, it can be assumed that the average density of hair is 1250 hairs per square inch. Figuring at an average of 2 hairs per follicular unit, it would take 625 follicular units per square inch.

To get 25% of that, you would need 156 follicular units per square inch. All that remains is to measure your balding area and multiply the number of square inches by 156. When you know what number of grafts to expect during your hair transplant surgery, you will be a savvy consumer. It does not hurt one bit go into the process with an idea of your own about how the treatment should go.

Statistics for Lasik Surgery Patients

The Lasik operation can be a wonderful, life-changing option for many people whose vision is less than perfect. There are several different types of Lasik operations now available, from the original and well documented procedure to Lasik procedures done with three dimensional wavefronts, or done entirely with lasers. Each of these variations of the Lasik procedure should be discussed with the physician that is to perform the operation.
Like any surgery, Lasik does have the potential for side effects.

Sometimes reading the horror stories of the outcomes of a Lasik procedure can deter people from seriously considering such a choice. It is also true that the vast numbers of people who have a successful, trouble-free Lasik surgery tend not to report a long and detailed story of their experience, unlike those that have experienced trouble afterward.

However, it is good to know what the possible side effects of the Lasik procedure are, and also the likelihood that one of these side effects will occur for a particular patient. Just like any medicine we take, each has a possible number of side effects, but we generally assume that the likelihood of a serious side effect is small, and we take the medicine anyway. This article will hopefully put concerns of the prospective Lasik patient into perspective so that they can calmly and thoughtfully ponder having a Lasik procedure done in the future.

More than one million Lasik procedures are done in the US every year, according to the FDA. This arm of the national government has accumulated the following statistics for the most common side effects of the Lasik procedure. These statistics will also vary by the physician performing the surgery, so make sure to get as much information on the prospective Lasik physician as possible.

After Lasik surgery, 1.7 percent of patients experience some glare or sensitivity to light after the operation. This varies by patient, but this sensitivity is especially noticeable when looking at a bright light, such as a streetlight when walking at night, or other strong light and dark contrast. Another light related side effect is a halo around a light, and this occurs in 3.5 percent of Lasik patients.

The new, corrected vision can be noticed quickly by some Lasik patients, in as little as a few hours after surgery. Most patients that have undergone the Lasik procedure find the change is permanent within a few days. In 2.6 percent of clients that have had a Lasik procedure done, there is persistent visual fluctuation within at least a part of their sphere of vision.

Finally, some patients do not get a fully corrected sphere of vision after their Lasik procedure. This happens with a small number of clients, and the FDA statistics are that only 3 percent of patients have this effect. In all or nearly all cases, the physician in charge will perform an additional Lasik procedure to improve this.

This detailing of the major permanent side effects of the Lasik procedure should put any personal horror stories into perspective. Notice that none of the percentages are above 3 percent, and this should bring comfort to most prospective Lasik clients. However, it should also motivate them to look carefully at the Lasik physician’s personal record.

How Hair Is Inserted in Hair Transplant Surgery

Hair transplant surgery begins, after anesthesia is applied, with removing donor tissue. Follicular units are then extracted from the tissue using a stereomicroscope. This is all done by skilled nurses and technicians. The insertion of the hair into the receptor sites comes later.

Once the follicular units for the hair transplant are dissected out of the donor tissue, technicians set them aside in a saline solution. The temperature must be ideal or the small grafts will not survive the procedure. This is done very carefully in order to ensure a good result.

The surgeon will make tiny incisions into the scalp where the hair transplant grafts are to go. These are called the receptor sites. They are made with a very thin surgical needle. The surgeon must have an eye for detail to properly set the receptor sites. He must also be very artistic to achieve a natural look, especially at the hairline.

The direction the hair grows, both on the front of the head and at the crown, are very important, too. The doctor must make the condition of the newly placed hair look like the patient’s own natural scalp hair. The angle that the hair is put in determines how much it will stand up from the head.

Once the surgeon has made all the hair transplant incisions that lay out the design he has created, the specially trained surgical team steps in. They use his plan to accomplish his goals, and in turn the goals of the patient. The groundwork is done for them by the surgeon when he does his incisions.

The surgical team takes care to get every hair transplant graft into the receptor sites as they have been laid out. They waste no time, though, because the small grafts are vulnerable when their follicles are outside of the skin. The goal is to get the grafts in as quickly as possible while staying true to the design.

Next, the doctor looks over the hair transplant for quality control. He may take a good deal of time tweaking the placement of grafts before he is satisfied that they are all set properly into their receptor sites in a pleasing fashion. When he gives the ok, the surgical technicians again take over the patient’s care.

The grafts will be more permanently set into place when the technicians dry them by blowing a cool blow dryer across them. This makes them adhere in their place so that no bandages are necessary. The patient will be asked to bring, or will be given, a baseball cap for the ride home from the hair transplant procedure.

The doctor will want to see how the grafts are doing the day following the hair transplant. The patient will go in for a check-up so that any problems can be corrected quickly. If that is not possible, at least plans can be made to correct them at a future time.

The doctor will have done his job with the hair transplant procedure at this point. All that remains is periodic checkups. If the hair loss is extensive, there may be more procedures, but all the hair transplant surgeries will be done with the same amount of care.

How Are Follicular Units Used in Hair Transplant Surgery?

Certain doctors have been aware of follicular units for a long time now, but the knowledge only recently made its way into hair transplant methods. Now these ideas are being used in hair restoration every day.

To understand how follicular units have affected hair transplant surgery practices, it is necessary to first understand what a follicular unit is. A follicular unit is a single entity that is made up of several parts. All these parts are necessary to the whole.

The first part, and the one most people getting hair transplant surgery are interested in, is the hairs. There should be one to four full hair follicles in the unit and one or two fine hairs as well. There are sebaceous glands in the follicular unit which produce oil.

The follicular unit is a living unit with muscle, nerves and blood vessels that are all tiny enough to fit into this small package. The unit is set off by a band of collagen that holds it together. If you look under a microscope at a scalp, you can see follicular units growing in just this way.

The idea of bringing this information into hair transplant procedures led to innovative surgical methods. Rather than just moving around individual hair follicles, surgeons actually moved a unit which contained everything the hair needed to keep growing. The results were ground-breaking.

One way surgeons used to move the donor follicular units to the balding areas was by single strip harvesting. This is done by moving small strips of tissue containing follicular units. This method keeps the units intact and ready to transplant. Earlier methods such as mini-grafting and micro-grafting broke up the follicular units.

As a part of the hair transplant process with Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT), a new microscope technique was used. It is called stereomicroscopic dissection. This means that the follicular units are carefully taken out of the donor tissue and kept individually intact.

When doctors use hair transplant procedures with FUT, they do not have to use quite as large of a donor site. The follicular units are small and they can be separated from tissue that has no hair, under the microscope. That way, only the tissue that grows hair is transplanted. It is a much more efficient procedure in that way.

Follicular units placed during hair transplant procedures are put into tiny holes the size of needles. The insertion sites heal quickly, and they leave no marks. This makes for a much more comfortable recovery and better results.

FUT hair transplant procedures can make a big difference in the number of times a patient will have to go back for more treatments. More grafts can be done at one session, so that the patient has to go back fewer times. This is more convenient to patients.

Hair transplant done using follicular unit procedures is becoming more and more the norm. Possibly this is because it puts hair into the scalp in the same arrangement as it grows there naturally. This represents a leap forward in hair transplant technology.