Just had my transplant surgery yesterday with Dr. Greg Pistone in Cherry Hill, N.J. A pretty pleasant experience. Except for the injections in the scalp, which is always uncomfortable, the session went pretty smoothly. I watched "Ocean's 11" and "American Pie 2", though because I was so sedated with an IV, I don't remember most of it.

Dr. Pistone made all the graft incisions himself, and 3 lovely ladies put in the grafts. Very friendly, very courteous. They used staples to close the donor area, which I have no problem with.

Dr. Pistone is the first surgeon of the 3 I've had work done with that recommends keeping the area bandaged and covered for three days. I'm a pretty hygienic person, so it's bothering me that I can't wash the area. However, I've sensed no bleeding in the scalp. In fact, during the entire procedure, they kept spraying and wiping the sites.

The only drawbacks are the tightness and itching in the donor area. I don't like sleeping on my back, and I felt nausea and had a bad case of the hiccups last night.

Once the cap comes off on Thursday morning, I begin cleaning the area with a 50/50 solution of water and hydrogen peroxide. This is also a first as prior doctors have had me use saline solution.

All told, we managed to get 1000 grafts done, and hopefully it will be the last time. Next up for this body image flunkie...liposuction.

Just had my transplant surgery yesterday with Dr. Greg Pistone in Cherry Hill, N.J. A pretty pleasant experience. Except for the injections in the scalp, which is always uncomfortable, the session went pretty smoothly. I watched "Ocean's 11" and "American Pie 2", though because I was so sedated with an IV, I don't remember most of it.

Dr. Pistone made all the graft incisions himself, and 3 lovely ladies put in the grafts. Very friendly, very courteous. They used staples to close the donor area, which I have no problem with.

Dr. Pistone is the first surgeon of the 3 I've had work done with that recommends keeping the area bandaged and covered for three days. I'm a pretty hygienic person, so it's bothering me that I can't wash the area. However, I've sensed no bleeding in the scalp. In fact, during the entire procedure, they kept spraying and wiping the sites.

The only drawbacks are the tightness and itching in the donor area. I don't like sleeping on my back, and I felt nausea and had a bad case of the hiccups last night.

Once the cap comes off on Thursday morning, I begin cleaning the area with a 50/50 solution of water and hydrogen peroxide. This is also a first as prior doctors have had me use saline solution.

All told, we managed to get 1000 grafts done, and hopefully it will be the last time. Next up for this body image flunkie...liposuction.

Firebird - I'm surprized your doctor is having you use hydrogen peroxide. Medical people have told me that it kills cells and they don't use it anymore, so it would be bad for both the donor and recipient areas. I have heard this from more than one source. My doctor has me clean with saline only.

I felt the same thing when I read that as well. I guess watering it down takes away any harm? My doctor said pure alcohol and pure Hyd. Per. may kill follicles.

I agree that this sounds strange...

Firebird also posted before, asking about Dr. Pistone. I guess nobody recognized Dr. Pistone's name, because nobody responded. He said that Dr. Pistone would use FUs...then he says "300 in the front and bigger grafts in the back".

It makes it sound like Dr. Pistone is one of the doctors trying to use the term "FU" without actually using real FUs.

Check it out:
http://hairtransplantnetwork.atinfop...5&m=6694011191

I conducted a small research study in Orlando at the Live Surgery Workshop last year in which I tested various "stresses" on individual two-hair follicular unit grafts. We tested 14 such FU's with each stress or a total of 28 hairs per. One of the stresses was to dunk the grafts for a total of 30 seconds in a small cup of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (which is the "full" strength, or the stength of the product that is bought in a store), and the grafts grew poorly - only around 10-15% as I recall. Another study box was planted with 14 similar grafts that were dunked for 30 seconds in a 1% mixture (two parts saline to one part hydrogen peroxide) and these grafts grew fine, with about a 85-90% yield. This doesn't answer the question as to whether a mixture of equal parts peroxide and saline would be harmful or not harmful, but gives some perspective to the fact that peroxide can be used to keep the operating field (the recipient area) clean without harming the grafts in my opinion, as long as the concentration is kept low.
Mike Beehner, M.D.

I discussed this with the doctor last week when I had my staples removed. He said it was to assist the healing, and it seems to work very well. The scalp looked great last week, better than any other procedure I had experienced.

Here I am, 2 weeks to the day post-surgery, and there's very little to remind me that I even had the procedure done. Kudos to Dr. Pistone.

I need info on Pistone

Fabe
The fellow who started this thread has instant messengering. Click on the "little man- file card" icon on his post, then when that window comes up, click on "more info" to get his address.

I haven't seen any follow-up posts from that fellow that I remember. But sometimes you can still get in touch with patients via email.

I hope that helps.

so do I because I'm considering going to him