Does this answer seem odd

[Montrose02]

I asked a doctor why he only does 2000 grafts at the most in 1 session here is his answer:

 

''It is possible but a lot of the clinics that offer 2500 grafts in one session split the 4 hair follicular unit into 4 grafts with only one hair, with me I would give maybe a smaller # of grafts but because I do not separate those folliclar units you will get a least the same number of hairs or maybe even more, usually I take a donor strip of about 28 to 30 cms and 1.0 to 1.2 cms wide and transpalnt all the availabe hair. I think you need to compare more the siza of the strip than the number of grafts, you will get more transpalnted hair with this treatment.''

 

Was this a good answer or should I stay away from this doctor.

 

thank you for any input

[Dewayne]

Probably right about some, but I highly doubt the top clinics do that. You can obviously tell the difference in Wong's 4,000 graft case vs. some other 2,300 graft case. No comparison.

 

More than likely, this doctor doesn't have the staff to perform a larger session or has just made the decision to focus on that. Nothing wrong with that, but he should just say it imo.

[Dr. Victor Hasson]

Montrose,

 

Ultimately the number of grafts that you receive in a session does depend on the dimensions of the donor strip taken. While this physician limits his strip size to 1.0 - 1.2 cm in width other physicians who have developed the necessary skills are able to safely harvest donor strips of 2.0 cm and even 3.0 cm in selected cases. The final graft count, with a given size strip, will then be dependent on the density of the donor area. This density may vary widely from 60-110 FU per cm2. The density and coverage that is achieved should be directly proportional to the number of FU transplanted.

 

Here is an example of a larger strip I removed that was 2cm wide by 30cm long. The final graft count was 5119 grafts which equates to an average donor density of 85 FU per cm2.

 

[Dr. Scott Alexander MD]

I agree totally with Dr. Hasson. It's been several years since most of the doctors maximum graft count was 2500 grafts and below. Today, mostly because of Hasson and Wong's large cases, those graft counts have been driven much higher. Because of the expertise that now exists, the time to do these cases is about the same as it used to be with the old smaller cases. The most important qualifications for large graft counts is definitely density and elasticity of the scalp. Some patients density might be so bad I would take the same amount of strip and end up with 1500 follicular units as I would to get 3000 follicular units. I think it is extremely important to do fewer cases with larger sessions because it causes less trauma to the donor area. I like to thank Hasson and Wong for pushing us to improve and grow in this area.

[Dr. Victor Hasson]

Dr. Alexander,

 

Thank you for your kind comments. Dr. Wong and I have followed your progress and are glad to see such great results in your practice.

[Raphael84]

Good of you to chime in there Docs. Thanks for clarifying that for us!