Shapiro and use of Acell

[Slickers]

I saw a comment that Shapiro uses Acell in aiding scar closure. What's the consensus on this? Are they the only clinic that does? Does anyone have experience of it, comments about it?

Edited January 18, 2012 by Slickers

[orlhair1]

It was used with my HT both on the donor and on the grafts (at my option). My donor scar healed fast and really well.....difficult to find. I really don't know whether the Acell contributed to the process or not. I just decided to use it. I could be wrong on this, but I think SMG uses it for their FUE procedures, but for my FUT it was just an option that I chose.

[StaggerLee123]

Hey orlhair I know the SMG also offer Vitrase as an option to imrove scalp laxity so the closure has less tension on it. Is that something that you opted for also? Have others used this or have any opinion on it? Do other clinics even offer it? It seems as if Vitrase can indeed improve laxity and give a better scar it seems like a no-brainer to me?

 

Any thoughts on Vitrase?

[BadBeat]

It was used with my HT both on the donor and on the grafts (at my option). My donor scar healed fast and really well.....difficult to find. I really don't know whether the Acell contributed to the process or not. I just decided to use it. I could be wrong on this, but I think SMG uses it for their FUE procedures, but for my FUT it was just an option that I chose.

 

Yes, they do use it on FUE procedures as well (at the patients option). I will be using it for my scheduled FUE HT with SMG this Spring.

[orlhair1]

Hey orlhair I know the SMG also offer Vitrase as an option to imrove scalp laxity so the closure has less tension on it. Is that something that you opted for also? Have others used this or have any opinion on it? Do other clinics even offer it? It seems as if Vitrase can indeed improve laxity and give a better scar it seems like a no-brainer to me?

 

Any thoughts on Vitrase?

 

I opted for the Vitrase.......it isn't expensive and seemed like a no brainier to me as well.

 

BadBeat, you are in great hands.......everyone at SMG is fantastic......I look forward to seeing your results!

Edited January 19, 2012 by orlhair1

[Janna]

Hi Slickers,

 

We offer ACell wound sheets to aid in donor scar healing, especially for those needing a scar revision. ACell fine particles are offered for Strip and FUE procedures but mainly to FUE patients. FUE grafts go through more trauma during the extractions, therefore are more fragile. ACell seems to help speed up the healing and speed up growth. ACell and Vitrase are supplemental applications that are available for patients if they want it. They are not manditory. More and more patients were asking for ACell so we decided to make it available.

 

Vitrase is injected into the donor, it helps achieve more laxity. We started to use it after Dr. Cooley's experiences with it. It's difficult to gauge just how much of our "result" is ACell or Vitrase but all feedback we've received from patients who used them have been very positive. Our fue patient Rockz used the ACell fine particles. He started seeing growth at 2 1/2 months post op. I believe same time for growth with Orlhair. We usually tell patients to expect growth at 4 months without ACell.

 

There should be handful of clinics offering ACell and Vitrase but I do not know any specific clinics except Dr. Cooley's.

[Slickers]

Hi Janna thanks for the reply. So Acell is used on the recipient area as well as the donor to aid growth as well as healing? Good to hear results to date have been encouraging.How long have SMG been using it?

 

From a personal point of view, I'm extremely interested in the benefits it may have in healing a linear scar as in oralhair's case since i'm considering FUT. Do you have any other cases or posters on here you can direct me to who have used it?

[Janna]

The ACell wound strips help with donor scar healing. Without ACell, our scars are coming up very thin for most patients so it's hard to say how much of the ACell is helping to improve upon our scars. We recommend it for scar repair patients. There are couple of patients that come to mind who recently had it used.

 

Here is a short exerpt from a write up on another forum from our scar repair patient. I've asked him to send me some photos of his scar to share with you. Email me at - janna@shapiromedical.com and I'll try to get you in touch with others who've had ACell wound strips used.

 

*********************

 

It's been a month now and I can tell you the following.

 

1. IMO, staples are the way to go. I just had my first staples ever with Dr. Ron and my lord I cannot believe at the 1 month mark how GOOD my scar looks. I know scars can widen later but right now, there is no widening, no redness, no nothing....but I think there is another reason for that...which is....

 

2. Dr. Ron used 2 things on me. #1 One was a substance called Vitrase which he used to help with the scar revision. Janna can explain it what it does but from my understanding it helps with making the repair less tight. #2 He also used ACell in the closure and I swear on my life, my scar at even 1 week looked like it was almost fully healed and more like a scar from 6 months out, not 1 week. After 1 month, all that is red is some of the staple holes and a minor faint redness in the super skinny scar line.

[Janna]

Shapiro Medical have been using ACell for about a year.

 

To clarify, the wound strips do not aid in growth. They are for healing.

[StaggerLee123]

Thanks Janna very interesting.

[Slickers]

Janna thanks, I'm just sent you an email.

[eehair]

I had my second HT with Dr. Ron Shapiro two weeks ago. They used Acell on the donor strip area and staples. Acell was not used on my first surgery 4 years ago (wasn't available then as far as I can tell).

 

My scar after the first surgery healed extremely well (pencil thin white line) although it did take a good year to get to that point, and I made sure that I didn't do anything crazy to disturb the healing process.

 

I'm 14 days post 2nd HT surgery and I can say that I'm amazed at how well the donor area is looking/healing. Janna removed the staples on day 11. If I were to compare using Acell and not using Acell on the donor strip area I would say that the healing process is faster and better with the Acell, and as one person mentioned, the cost is very reasonable. I know this is just one experience and is anecdotal but it seems to be working well for me.

 

Once again, I'm thoroughly impressed with Dr. Shapiro and the entire staff at SMG!

[orlhair1]

I didn't have anything to compare as this was my first surgery, but like eehair, my scar healed very quickly and what I was really surprised by is how fast my hair grew around and through the scar.

[Janna]

Thanks EEHAIRS for posting about your experience with ACell. I know when I took your staples out the scar line had healed beautifully. In fact, it was difficult to see the line at all and I had loupes on. I think due to your physiology and Dr. Shapiro's closure technique, you would have healed up nicely without ACell but it helps heal just that much faster with it.

 

EEhairs and Orlhairs' experiences echo what our other patients have said. It would be nice for Slickers if more of Shapiro Medicals' patients who had ACell post about their experience or if you don't have time to post, please email me.

Thanks.