GHI Patient 3948 FUE (1 Procedure over 5 consecutive days) - 8 Months Post

[GHI]

This patient came to us to recreate his frontal third and increase the density throughout the scalp. We transplanted 3948 .75mm FUE grafts. Here are his updated photos. Pay particular attention to his new crown. He began taking Propecia daily two weeks prior to his procedure.

 

 

 

[GHI]

This patient came to us to recreate his frontal third and increase the density throughout the scalp. We transplanted 3948 .75mm FUE grafts. Here are his updated photos. Pay particular attention to his new crown. He began taking Propecia daily two weeks prior to his procedure.

 

 

 

[Bill - Seemiller]

GHI,

 

Welcome to our community.

 

Because you work for Global Hair Institute, please add this information to your signature under your profile.

 

You can do this by going to "Go", "Personal Zone", "Profile", and then choosing "View/Edit Profile".

 

You can use any language of your choice but please mention your affiliation with the clinic and whether or not you are compensated.

 

More information can be found in our terms of service.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[stratman]

I would be happy with those results. No scar and still able to shave the head. Not bad at all.

[NervousNelly]

Results do look impressive. Always nice to see quality examples of FUE. I'm sure that this patient is quite satified as most certainly would be.

 

NN

[Bill - Seemiller]

I agree that the results look terrific from what I am seeing in these pictures.

 

I'd also like to know the following:

 

1. How many sessions were required to achieve 3948 grafts with FUE

2. What was the name of the doctor who performed the surgery?

3. Where is this specific clinic located?

4. Can you post some high resolution before/immediately post op/after close up shots?

5. Can we see pictures of the donor area immediately post op (if more than one session - all of the sessions)?

6. How does this result look grown out?

 

Bill

[GHI]

Bill,

The asnwers to your questions follows:

1-We harvested all of the 3948 grafts in one procedure over 5 consecutive days.

2- The name of our physician is Dr. J. Salameh. Here is a link to hid profile with the ISHRS. http://ishrs.org/doctor-search/physicians-profile.php?RegID=49597

3-Our office is located in Jacksonville, Florida

4-We are going to post better photos of his results in two weeks with proper lighting and our clinical camera.

5-We will load additional procedure photos. How do we add photos to this post?

6-We do not know how this result looks grown out. He is going to start growing his hair out from this point moving forward. We will have additional photos the week of October 15th.

[Bill - Seemiller]

GHI,

 

Thank you for your response.

 

I have modified your profile signature and removed all links and phone numbers to your clinic as it is promotional in nature.

 

Certainly you are allowed to come here and post patient photos, but promotions and solicitations are prohibited as per our terms of service.

 

Your answer to the first question is a little misleading. Technically a procedure spread out over 5 consecutive days is really 5 procedures just in a short time frame. Otherwise I could say I had 1 strip surgery spread out over 3 years .

 

I encourage you to post some higher resolution photos when you get a chance and any additional photos that show his donor immediately post op and photos where the patient's hair is grown out.

 

I do think from what you've posted, the results look good.

 

Bill

[GHI]

Bill,

With regards to FUE, multiple day sessions are still considered one procedure because the total amount of grafts is completed during that one visit. Depending on the clinic, most offices are only able to harvest and place 1000-1500 FUE per day. If you were to have a 3000 graft strip over two days, strange we know but it does happen, then we would still consider this one procedure. Multiple strip surgeries broken up over years, such as your case, are considered seperate procedures, in our opinion. The amount of time needed to complete a 3000 FUE case is the one real downfall of this procedure. In my experience patients would prefer to sit for multiple days with FUE rather than sit for one day for a strip. The FUE procedure is far more patient friendly than a traditional strip harvest.

 

Is there a way for us to add photos to the post rather than attaching them?

GHI

[GHI]

Never mind, we added the procedure photos to the original album.

[Bill - Seemiller]

GHI,

 

I suppose it is all semantics.

 

I just think that stating that one procedure of 3948 grafts is deceiving. Many patients will interpret that is "in a single day". Please state how many days it took to perform each procedure in all of your posts to eliminate confusion. This should be stated in the subject as well.

 

You can add pictures to an album by clicking the "Edit Album" icon in the bottom right hand corner of the gallery.

 

Thanks,

 

Bill

[Pat - Community Publisher]

Larry,

 

Welcome to our forum community. I enjoyed "talking shop" with you a few days ago at the ISHRS meeting in Las Vegas. As you know, I've been a big sckeptic of FUE over the years for many reasons, including the big promises that have too often been followed by patient photos that show immediate post op results but very little follow up. Unfortunately, many of the physicians and clinics that were associated with FUE in the past had very low ethics and poor results at very expensive prices in my opinion.

 

I hope that you and your group will present FUE - both its pros and cons - responsibly online and thus establish legitamacy for this procedure.

 

I commend you for presenting long term follow up photos, which do show real improvement and good donor healing. Your use of the smaller 0.75 punch does also hold promise for truly minimizing cosmetically visible scarring in the donor area. Of course, successfully scoring and excising follicles with such a tiny punch with out transecting the follicles is very challenging.

 

I look forward to you disclosing more about your process in time.

 

Best wishes, Pat

[GHI]

Pat,

Thank you for allowing us to post in this forum. We look forward to helping educate the community on both the negative and positive attributes for FUE and other procedures. We also look forward to your visit to our clinic.

 

You are correct, most offices who attempt to perform FUE have a very difficult time harvesting full, intact grafts. I experienced the same concerns when I first started working on the FUE procedure back in 2002. FUE is a skill set that must be practiced, evaluated, and practiced some more. The reason most offices are using larger punches is because they are incapable of harvesting 2-5 hair follicular units. We have spent the better part of the past five years attempting to perfect the FUE process with a .75mm punch. We have done this because this is the largest punch that can be used that will consistantly provide NON-VISIBLE SCARRING in the donor. Obviously the smaller the punch the more challenging it is to harvest multi-hair follicular units. We have spent the better part of the past year compiling data to prove our abilities in FUE. We are now able to harvest 2-5 hair units without comprimising the overall hair count. What we mean to say is we measure our transection rates by each transected hair per graft, not each transected graft. Example, if we attempt to harvest 100 grafts each with 3 hairs we will have a 2-5% transection rate. This means for the total 300 hairs, we will consistantly harvest 285-294 total hairs from the 100 grafts. We know this sounds impossible by todays standards, but we are willing to send in transection rate sheets to back up this claim. If you would like them, please give us a fax number and we will provide you with the documentation from the patient charts, names and dates excluded of course.

 

Now for the negatives of FUE. The one main negative would have to be the amount of time needed to perform this procedure. We have diligently tried to speed up the donor harvest. The problem is we are more concerned with accuracy than speed. To date we schedule our patients for 800-1000 FUE per day. A 3000 graft FUE case will take 3-4 days to perform. This is very taxing on the patient. When asked, the patients who have had both strip and FUE which method they preferred, the majority of them state they prefer FUE.

 

Another concern for FUE is the placement process. Due to the harvest, the FUE graft does not have adipose tissue around the base to aid in the placement of each graft. This makes placing FUE grafts very challenging. The graft, without the adipose, is extremely delicate. If the technician places the FUE graft as if it was a strip graft, often times the graft yield will be compromised due to damage at the bulb. We have worked out a two person placement technique that allows us to place these grafts without damaging the exposed dermal papilla.

 

FUE is just like any other advancement in medicine. The idea is impossible until some one takes the time to try and figure out the process. Remember, approximately 10 years ago, follicular unit transplants were impossible? Remember when 3000 graft strips were impossible?

 

We look forward to answering questions about our FUE procedure. If anyone has any additional questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

[Bill - Seemiller]

GHI,

 

Thank you for a very honest post on FUE.

 

The problem is we are more concerned with accuracy than speed

 

This is not a problem at all. Accuracy is far more important than speed. I rather go into FUE for 5 consecutive days to get a quality job than going in 1 or 2 days with a high transection rate. Yet I understand the benefit to expediting the procedure as long as accuracy is not compromised.

 

Due to the harvest, the FUE graft does not have adipose tissue around the base to aid in the placement of each graft.

 

This is certainly a concern that I have heard a few times by reputable clinics yet sadly there are many that deny this as an obstacle to overcome. Can you describe your two person placement technique? I'd be interested to hear about it.

 

Once again, thank you for your honesty in recognizing the hurdles that need to be overcome in order to achieve a succesful FUE transplant. I look forward to learning more about your clinic in time.

 

Bill

[GHI]

Bill,

We are by no means finished with learning about FUE and h/t in general. This is a new dawn in h/t, (please pardon the poetry).

 

The most important thought we took home from the ISHRS meeting is we need to learn more by true scientific method. Let us hypothosize a solution, then check it's merits,not the other way around.

 

We hate to be particular, but we are GHI, Global Hair Institute, not DHI.

Thank you,

GHI

[Bill - Seemiller]

GHI,

 

Whoops...sorry about that. GHI is signficantly different than DHI. I did actually know that - my fingers just slipped .

 

Thanks,

 

Bill

[nobuzz4me]

Mr. GHI

 

The photos look great, look forward to more with a follow up after one year.

 

Thanks for the candid view on FUE and listing the down sides to it. Just as strip has its down sides as well. The patient can make a better decision having all the info INCLUDING the risks and downsides.

 

Having said that, I think FUE will get better and better maybe improve on the use of body hair for transplants. While I do not think BHT is a solution by itself it can supplement or be used to fill in scars.

[GHI]

Bill,

We have uploaded additional photos. See the photo gallery and let us know if these are the kind of photos you would like to see.

Thank you for the help with our first couple of posts.

GHI

[Perfect Fit]

GHI - these results look great. Moreover, it is refreshing to see an articulate and well-thought out case made for FUE with a full understanding of its problems and limitations. Do you have any other FUE mega-session photos you could share with us? I am interested in this procedure and have had consults with Feller and Armani. Feel free to PM me. Thanks.

 

Pat - interested to know whether you are intending to visit this clinic?

[Bill - Seemiller]

Perfect Fit,

 

Pat and GHI has a chance to meet face to face at the ISHRS conference. Pat and I have talked about GHI and I believe that Pat intends to visit them at some point in the future. I'll let Pat address the specifics because I don't know them

 

Bill