1.Are needles custom manufactured for each individual patient?

(I doubt this; I think it's industrially mass produced?)

2.How do the needle sizes correlate to the follicular unit graft sizes?

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Mmhce,

There are clinics that custom cut blades, mine did/does. I doubt all clinics do this but I'd like to think all the top clinics do.

-edit-wrong info

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I am not a doctor. The opinions and comments are of my own.

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From what I understand many clinics use custom cut blades.

Quote from Bill.
They cut the blades there and then rather then ordering blades for each patient.

Quote from another site

This is true, H&W worked with a medical supply group and invented the blade cutting device approx 5-6 years ago....Dr John Cole was one of the first to start using custom made blades.

Each day for every patient the blades are made in relationship to the size of the patient's individual grafts to provide a custom fit. It has been a excellent addition in bring this procedure, in the hands of the industry leaders to an end point....once we are down to a trimmed FU, in the hands of skilled techs and proper magnification there is nothing smaller and more refined to go too (this is an end point). If we can't make the graft any smaller and the incision is made in relationship to the graft we can not made the incision any smaller either this also is an end point. What this ultimately means is it is refined to the Nth most degree...good to know, right. What this means to the patient is the smaller the unit, the smaller the incision the closer we can place the grafts, which is important both with aesthetics and density. Similar to rocks in a jar versus sand in a jar, the sands will be packed closer.

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Zup,
Can the blades be manufactured the same day, or must a patient visit the clinic sometime in advance (a few days, months), in order to determine a sizing?

Thanks.

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take care...

Mmhce,

The blades are cut during surgery at the clinic, by the staff working at the clinic.

Not 100% sure if you are allowed to link to other sites, but this is the first site that came up in google showing a picture.

Cutting machine

Towards the bottom of the page is a picture of the equipment used to cut the blades.

Good post Maxxy! Thanks.

I've talked to Bill about this before. It's ok to post this link.

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take care...

Hello mmhce, you may have had this answered, but the answer is yes, they are made in the morning the day of surgery....not prior

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Patient Educator, Shapiro Medical. Going on 20years with Dr Ron Shapiro......not a regular poster, I leave that to Janna

Needles are pre-fabbed at a manufacturing facility in various sizes but for hair restoration the most common sizes are 18 gauge, 21 gauge and 23 gauge. The higher the gauge the smaller the circumference of the needle.

I made a video about this some time ago comparing not only the differences in size for needles vs. blades but the difference in how they affect tissue. I used a melon for the comparison. The video is here.. Needle Size vs. Blade Size

Below is a three frame image showing the blade cutting in it's latest iteration as designed by H&W. I believe the first cutters were manufactured roughly eight or nine years ago as they were in full use during my first procedure seven years ago.



For many years Dr. Hasson and Dr. Wong pushed for their colleagues to embrace lateral slit technology. Dr. Wong gave the first presentation regarding custom blades and lateral slits roughly twelve years ago at the Barcelona ISHRS conference.

Attached Images

cutterandblades.JPG (109.3 KB, 292 views)

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Dr. Hasson and Dr. Wong are members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians