FUE: transection rates and yield

[N-6]

Hi, this may vary by each individual physician, but what are standard transection rates and yield rates for FUE? how does this compare to FUT?

[RCWest]

With FUT, they have the strip out and under high powered microscopes they can see where to cut the grafts out, so transsection rate is very low. With FUE, they are basically cutting blindly and don't know anything until they pull the graft out of the head.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

RC West is right on. Couldn't be said more simply. I'd add that with the cutting blindly for FUE, that there are 2 distinct components that help or hinder the cutting blindly success rate.

 

1. Operator experience

2. Curliness of the hair and its follicle. Its pretty easy to FUE straight hair, as once you find the angle, things proceed quickly and often very successfully. With Curly hair and roots, that angle is hard to get and seems to shift as you move around the donor area.

 

Lastly patient movement plays a huge role in letting the doctor consistently hit the same angle. That can mean the difference between an easy fue and a nearly impossible one.

 

Dr Lindsey McLean VA

[Spanker]

I have read of a surgeon claiming less then 3% transection rate FUE....but I am not sure.

[TC17]

I find 3% to be highly unlikely. Spanker, which doctor said that?

[Sparky]

I think anything is possible if the doc takes a long time over the extraction process. I guess fue grafts will never be as robust as strip grafts as fue grafts are much skinnier due to the way they are harvested.

[uselessgomez]

Also to add to this, transection and yield are 2 completely different things. You can have a very low transection but a poor yield. Yield is what kind of growth you experience after it's all said and done. Some people just have poor growth no matter how well the surgery allegedly goes. Why is that? Who knows.

[N-6]

Yes transection and yield are different. With FUE, its not necessarily taken from the safe permanent zone. So my concern (once I'm tapped out via strip) includes yield of FUE. I dont know if docs can predict the extent of baldness/thinning with reasonable certainty and if they are taking out grafts via FUE from areas that may or may not thin, then that makes the predicted yield rate somewhat suspect in the long term. It seems to me that the yield rate in the long term for FUT is much more certain.

 

Thoughts?

[Spanker]

Well, I don't think you are suppose to start threads about the doc who claims 3% transection....but he is out of Alphreta,GA, near Atlanta. I read that claim on www.ishrs.org which many of the recommended docs here are affiliated with.

 

I am leaning towards FUE right now, but another thing to consider like said before is taht the grafts can dehydrate much quicker becasue they are smaller.

 

Just something to think about. I am looking at such a small session that I cannot bare to create a linear scar for it....but if needed I will strip it out in the future.