I've been on this site for a while now and never seen this question asked.

Does anyone know if Lateral Slit Technique produces better yield than Sagittal Slit Technique?

I know some Coalition HT surgeons have transitioned to Lateral because you can dense pack better, while other Coalition HT surgeons continue to use Sagittal Slit Technique because you can fit grafts in between existing native hairs.

Has there been any studies on this?

There are only 3 answers here
1. LST produces better Yield
2. LST and SST should yield the same results
3. Sagittal Technique produces better yield than Lateral Slit Technique

I know people will say it all depends on the doctor, but let's assume Coalitions doctors since they are the best of the best.

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HT with Dr. Cooley

Here it says that lateral slit allows denser packing. Hasson & Wong pioneered it.
Lateral Slit Technique

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Finasteride 1.25 mg. daily
Avodart 0.5 mg. daily
Spironolactone 50 mg twice daily
5 mg. oral Minoxidil twice daily
Biotin 5000 mcg.
MSM 1500 mg. twice daily
Zinc 50 mg. daily

Damn, with all the stuff you put in your hair are you like a negative NW1?

Instead of believing anything u read arround the net its better to make comments based on personal experience . I had done both of the things mentioned here and i can tell u for sure that the truth is far away from the way it has been presented in various interent sites.

RCWest, as I mentioned, I understand that dense packing is a "pro"

but my question is about yield. Is yield better?

Tsakalos, please elaborate, what's your story?

I'm surprised not more people on this site are responding, especially the newbies, this is actually a very important topic and something you all really should understand especially when choosing a HT surgeon.

I "believe" doctors such as Alexander, Shapiro, Cooley mainly use Sagittal

While, H&W, Feller, Arocha use Lateral Slit Technique.

if I'm incorrect, please correct me with my assumptions about the HT Surgeons

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HT with Dr. Cooley

tsakalos,

Can you please be more specific ?

Was lateral slit better for you, or sagittal slit ?

Yeah -- Tsakalos, what is this truth you speak of? What a tease to leave it at that...

Azn_guy,

Several months ago, I asked this same question and was given a good answer by recommended hair transplant surgeon Dr. Parsa Mohebi:

"I use sagittal incision on the very front of my hairlines only to make the hairline (that will be receiving single hair follicular units). Sagittal incisions are used to minimize the level of injury to the small dermal blood vessels that travel from front to top. The reason we do not use sagittal incisions on the more posterior areas and behind the hairline is to increase the appearance of fullness in those areas. "

Hopefully this helps answer your question!

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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.

in my case the lateral slit produced bad results. the yield was low, and some of the very few grafts that grew were thin and wispy, almost invisible to the naked eye producing no cosmetic improvent. i have arround 4000 pics from the last ht (YES 4000 pics - 10 GB and many close ups) and i can show this anytime, also in several other spots, marks from the incisions are visible . Now i dont know the exact cause of this, but since i had other transplants before and since my last donor strip was taken above the previous (meaning at least same or better quality hairs) i whould be expecting the grafts that seem to grow to be at least the same in diameter as the previous (assuming they were transplanted exactly as extracted and havent been manipulated or splitted etc) i am at 14 months post op now. i think maybe the failure of my surgery maybe is not related to the lateral slits, but to other factors related to the donor management - meaning that i think that miscalculations regarding the laxity limit that might have been made, caused my scalp to stretch SO BADLY that probably have affected the blood circulation (since my scalp feeled like someone was pushing it backwards untill the 8th - 9th month) + serious donor complications that require 1 or even more additional corrective work, which after the latest bad experience i am really hesitant to undergo.

Future,

Many of us understand that when using Sagittal, needles are used while Lateral Slits use custom blades are used

I dont know any HT doctors that are staffed to handle both methods since they are two different techniques.

Interesting comment from Dr. Mohebi though...

Also don't forget Lateral Slit Technique, Doctors require shaving of the recipient area
Sagittal Slit Technique, shaving is NOT required

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HT with Dr. Cooley

I don't know whether the needle vs custom-made blades thing and the post-2000 lateral slit popularity are science, intuition or just plain co-incidental. I do suspect this ; there has been a bias towards sacrificing weak minaturized hair in the NW2,3 zones for the 'greater good', that being, the well-angled growth of hair splayed out to create the illusion of volume. Compromising vascular integrity has gone slightly behind the priority to start on a fresh slate and create the architecture of a well-made illusion. Patients at some clinics are told to stop Minox months before a transplant. To weak hairs, the combination of a minox drought and shockloss of an HT is a death warrant, but it doesn't matter, because take a bow, newly transplanted, flat and splayed lateral follicle. No doubt, sagittal slits protect the existing follicles much, much more because they are parallel.