This nice medical secretary had complained of loss of her widow's peak apex from some kind of trauma years ago prior to both learning English and moving from eastern Europe to the US. She had to occasion to talk with a previous patient who visited the medical practice that she works for and came over to see if we had a minimally invasive option for her.

We taped up that thick posterior hair, did a quick FUE harvest, and placement with completion before lunch allowing her to go to work the rest of the afternoon. One week pics are shown also, and we'll see her next spring for a checkup and interim pics.

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

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William H. Lindsey, MD, FACS
McLean, VA

Dr. William Lindsey is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

Dr Lindsey,
Do you use Dr Feller's newest tool for FUE extraction? Nice result.

__________________
Blake (Future_HT_Doc)

Forum Co-Moderator and Editorial Assistant for the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the Hair Restoration Forum

All opinions are my own and my advice should not constitute as medical advice.

Yes, I used Dr. Feller's FUE equipment. I have tried other instruments but at least for me, his are more consistent. Plus, rather than some salesman telling me what to do, he worked with me on a few cases early on.

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

__________________
William H. Lindsey, MD, FACS
McLean, VA

Dr. William Lindsey is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

Thanks for the reply Dr Lindsey. Dr Feller's FUE yield and extraction methods are impressive, and I think it's great you use his equipment as well!

__________________
Blake (Future_HT_Doc)

Forum Co-Moderator and Editorial Assistant for the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the Hair Restoration Forum

All opinions are my own and my advice should not constitute as medical advice.

I agree. And for small cases like this, its just easier for everyone to do an FUE rather than a tiny strip. This one posting has triggered substantial interest in small FUEs at our practice; almost as if folks in our area didn't realize this was feasable.

Thanks

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

__________________
William H. Lindsey, MD, FACS
McLean, VA

Dr. William Lindsey is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

I m in a similarsituation to this patient ith a larger thinning area. i m torn between fue and strip.

I have looked at this patient and got to thinking, there are a lot of holes for 133 extractions. I have therefor counted them and could see 230 extractions. Is this usually the case when an electronic punch is used as opposed to a manual version?

How much do you charge per graft?

Would this patient have been a better candidate for a small strip procedure? I`ve read that women are less prone to donor scar stretching and with females having long hairs, it's easier to conceal the linear scar. One of the concerns I have with FUE is the high transection rate. What do you get with yours? Do you keep track of your 1's, 2's, 3's, & 4's for strip and fue procedures? Looking at this women's donor area, I too was caught off guard by the number of punch holes. I ended up counting each hole and came up with 230 number holes with more obscured from view. Does this mean the transection rate is 50%? This is a big concern of mine even if I do have decent density. Bill, whats your take on this?

http://img687.imageshack.us/i/fuepicture.jpg/

I don't have her chart handy, but I do recall her having a bit of a twist to her roots in one area. That did make it a bit harder in one spot. We typically start off with 0.9 powered then 0.9mm hand if its difficult. If we are having difficulty we do the same at 1.0 and on rare occasion(like the black man we did last week) 1.1mm.

Take the black man for instance...he was only our second black FUE; and a previous strip repair patient of ours. I told him that we'd be lucky to get 60% of first attempts. Then what happens....on the first 30 attempts we get 28. Now as I moved toward the center of his donor area, without realizing it, his roots changed directions. In one area of his scalp I just couldn't get much success, so we went back to the original area and again had approximately 85% success. Unfortunately he had to shave more scalp, but FUE is like that. Its just more challenging in many facets.

Lastly, remember that the word "transection" as used in a previous post is quite different from transection in a strip. Transect a strip follicle and its done. Pull out a transected hair, and the root is still in the scalp...most likely to grow back another hair on the next growth cycle. I am not advocating just blindly attempting and pulling out broken shafts, but a broken shaft is not a dead follicle.

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

__________________
William H. Lindsey, MD, FACS
McLean, VA

Dr. William Lindsey is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians