Dr. Lindsey 6 month update on 2200 grafts to treat radiation caused hairloss

[Dr. William Lindsey]

This 17 year old boy is about 9 years out from radiation treatments to cure cancer in the jaw joint. His entire right parietal scalp is without hair and this causes him a lot of distress. Readers may recall that I posted a similar case that we did last year with a one year update this past May with excellent results, also in a young man. And readers may know that my daughter has brain cancer, so I am only too familiar with what these kids have had to endure.

This family came to see me and we discussed a strip procedure and our first case will place hair more toward the middle, hoping that gravity will allow hair growth to come down and camouflage lower down hair loss. I personally believe that it will take a second case, just like the other young man we did, to get good coverage.

I was very frank with the patient and his parents that I have only done one of these cases….but that I am highly motivated to help them, given my personal situation with my daughter. Our medical student is writing this case up for presentation and publication, and he’s been unable to find much in the medical literature so we are all in somewhat uncharted territory. Given the radiation, I am not sure it’s going to work….but I’m certainly hopeful. His recipient area felt like normal scalp, it appeared to have good vascularity and he did great cleaning.

We did his case in mid August 2011, and on Thanksgiving his mom emailed me that he was growing. He had a day off from school last week and stopped in at just under 6 months. He’s growing nicely in the area we worked in. I’m suggesting a second case to work laterally once he graduates from high school in June and before he starts college.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[Dutch]

Well done doctor, bless for helping these young patients, all the best with your daughter too

[RCWest]

Dr. Lindsey, you are one of the best ever! Thank you for posting this.

[RodG]

Hi,

 

Thank you for helping this young man. You must get a lot of reward when you can help a truly genuine case like this...

 

Regards

 

Rod

[NEWHAIRPLEASE]

Looks great Dr Lindsey!! Nice work as usual!

[orlhair1]

Thanks for sharing this........cases like this put things in proper perspective.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

Thanks, yeah it does put things in perspective. I submitted a paper with both of these cases to the big hair meeting in the fall. It would be nice to get a series of 5-10 like this and really do a landmark publication, so that radiation onc and heme onc doctors would know this is an option for this patient population.

 

Some of you guys know I'm training for the NYC ironman to raise money for cancer research...and its stuff like this that keeps me motivated. Every wednesday at 1pm I run 20 miles, and about mile 18....it would be easy to stop, but kids like these 2 boys and my daughter help me press on.

 

Dr. L

[hairthere]

Great work Dr. Lindsey! I'm sure this means the world to this kid.

[orlhair1]

Dr. Lindsey, Thanks for sending me the link to donate towards your fundraising efforts........what a great cause that you are training for on behalf of Julia and others. Keep us posted!

[Dr. William Lindsey]

Thank you orlhair1.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

So this young man was in yesterday for case number 2. He's 11 months out from his first case and looks good. We started just below last year's case and worked down. As we got to just above the ear, the scalp became very firm, from his previous radiation therapy, but it had good blood supply. We did 1650 grafts and I'll put up the pictures next week after his sutures are out.

 

He's leaving for college in 6 weeks and I'd expect to see him around Christmas break for pictures and then next summer.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA