Dr. or Tech--who harvests in FUE procedure???

[azjoe1]

Possibly a silly question, but when performing an FUE procdure, who typically performs the harvest portion of the procedure--the Dr. or a Technician???

 

I know the Dr. does the implanting of the grafts, but am unclear from some of my consultations on who harvests fromt the donar area...

[Spanker]

Not sure about all docs, I know shapiro has a tech to harvest, from a conversation that I had with Matt.

[Blake Bloxham]

Azjoe,

 

In most cases, it is the hair transplant surgeon who removes the grafts in a follicular unit extraction (FUE) case.

[Aileen]

Azjoe1

At our clinic Dr. Gabel has the staff assist him during the process, but he harvests all of the FUE grafts himself. Once the grafts have been harvested, the staff will examine them under the microscope and trim them if necessary. Dr. Gabel makes the recipient sites and then he will place the grafts with another staff member.

[gillenator]

azjoe1,

 

You ask a good yet controversial question my friend. From a clinical standpoint, it is anyone's guess who actually is harvesting the grafts during a FUE procedure. Years ago, when FUE was first introduced in North America, ONLY licensed physicians were actually doing the extractions.

 

Why? Here comes the controversial part. It's because in most states in the US, if not all of them, only allow a licensed physician to "cut flesh or tissue". And in fact the period I am speaking of is late 2002 and into 2003, there were only several licensed doctors in the US actually performing FUE and they were new to it. There was one licensed physician in Canada doing FUE prior to 2003 and still doing it.

 

Not that I am officially speaking for any of these doctors or clinics but this issue came up back then and the majority were also of the opinion that only a licensed physician could legally "perform" the extractions. Techs are not licensed doctors yet I hear about techs doing the extractions and/or a variation of the harvesting process. In some cases, the surgeon makes the inital cut with the punch and then passed the process to the tech to finish extraction. There was a clinic based out of Jacksonville, FL three to five years ago that was owned and operated by a tech and heard that he was doing 100% of the extractions and even did the recipient incisions. They apprently had a licensed physician "present" but the tech did the procedure hands down.

 

I remember getting into the discussions in several forums and am still of the opinion that only a licensed physician should be performing any part of the procedure that involves "surgery".

 

You mentioned that most of the docs place the grafts but the reality is that very few docs place the grafts. An extreme high percent of them are placed by the techs.

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

The laws regarding who can do the extractions varies from state to state. The law in Florida is very grey. I do know of some technicians that are probably better than many of the physicians that try to perform FUE. However, I do it myself because currently I am still to much of a fanatic to let someone do it for me. I would find it hard to believe that any clinic would have the technicians making the recipient sites. The doctor would have to be pretty lazy to not even do that. I do allow my surgical techs to place most of the grafts as I am sure most clinics do, but I will check every grafts with high powered loops at the end of the case to make sure everything is perfect.

[scar5]

Silly question? - Azjoe, you are being coy, but I like it!! It is very fun to play with this question. To answer your question literally

 

Three patterns I'm aware of-

 

1) Doc punches and extracts

2) Doc punches, tech extracts (the follicle is still iin place, tech plucks it out)

3) tech punches and extracts

 

Runs the gambit of form patents, accountability of results -ethical, technical , legal issues and even makes you think about the whole strip thing, where the doc doe the take-away steak and the techs chop it up away from the scalp

 

My two cents, I hope techs learn to do it and do it well. Doc's have to play with their kids and can't spend all day on your head and go home smiling. And I don't want that to be a reason that the patient gets talked into strip