FUE using Robotic arm for extraction

[NeilC]

Living in the UK I am 60 and have had very gradual hair loss thought the last 40 years to the point that there was very noticeable thinning in my crown area and also at the front in the centre. I maintained much of my hairline but it was becoming extremely thin with time. I researched hair loss clinics around London and the South East but stumbled on the latest technique in the USA where they use a robot to accurately locate and isolate each hair. I am an engineer and am fairly familiar with robotic pick and place systems in a production environment and also optical quality checking systems. The robotic idea intrigued me as I know how accurate these machines can be. I was particularly worried about conventional FUE because from what I could gather on the Internet removing each hair was not a very exact science and there was a failure rate to be expected.

 

The problem was that as far as I could find out there were none of these machines in the UK and I was not prepared to travel to the US. I visited one particular US website associated with a company that had a robot which I found impressive because the guy that runs the business seemed to be a pioneer in hair transplanting and was very well connected. They also had a UK division in Hammersmith, London and their website said they were considering putting in a Robot. I went up to see them in October 2012 and they told me it was being installed in Feb 2013 so I made an appointment. I am writing this today, 14th February having just come home from 2 days at the clinic undergoing the transplantation.

 

I would like to share my experiences with everyone about the treatment and how it will progress over the next 18 months.

 

Procedure lasted 2 days with part of a 3rd day being shampooed. I had paid for 1600 grafts but they did about 1800 in the end. The experience was amazing and the robot worked like a dream. I actually felt nothing when my scalp was being punched apart from some pressure. I was numbed of course. Everybody in the clinic were absolutely amazing and I was kept informed at every point of the procedure. My hair is almost completely grey so they had to dye my hair in the donor area to add contrast to the image ensuring the optics on the robotic arm could clearly distinguish each hair from scalp. I now have dark brown hair at the back of my head albeit #1 grade.

 

I would like to tell everyone how I get on over the next 18 months and if anyone has any questions just ask

Edited February 14, 2013 by NeilC

[james84]

A robotic arm.......really!

 

I wish you the very best and hope you have an amazing result.

 

Brave man in my eyes though.

 

Any pics?

[PupDaddy]

Congratulations on your recent hair transplant. Wishing you a great result from what is a relatively small number of grafts by today's standards. Do you know what Norwood level you were? Do you have any pe-op and post-op photos you could post?

 

Regarding the robotic fue, do you know what make or brand it is? The two widely known fue "robots" are the NeoGraft and the ARTAS. They are very different from each other. The ARTAS is considered the more advanced of the two and without the graft-drying and graft-bruising problems associated with the suction-to-holding-tank system of the NeoGraft. The ARTAS has been the robotic fue mechanism of choice among top, established ht docs such as Dr. Rahal and the Shapiro brothers, whereas the NeoGraft seems to be marketed to dermatologists and plastic surgeons who want an "easy" way to expand their practice by offering hair transplants.

 

Can you tell us the name of the doc you went to?

 

Best luck on your growth and result.

[1978matt]

Was it Dr R2D2?

 

1800 grafts in 2 days sounds very slow. Most Drs can do close to that in one day (not that speed should be an issue).

[NeilC]

Did you meet any patients in person who had had the procedure to inspect their results prior to booking the procedure ? ?

 

The machine had just been installed and only a few people had been already done in the previous few days. I certainly would have asked for a viewing if there had been more history

[NeilC]

Was it Dr R2D2?

 

1800 grafts in 2 days sounds very slow. Most Drs can do close to that in one day (not that speed should be an issue).

 

The incisions, if I can call them that we're done late the previous evening and all the removal and placement was done completely on the following day. I had some old sporting scars and a slight protrusion in my skull at the bottom of the donor area that slowed it down a little.

[NeilC]

Congratulations on your recent hair transplant. Wishing you a great result from what is a relatively small number of grafts by today's standards. Do you know what Norwood level you were? Do you have any pe-op and post-op photos you could post?

 

Regarding the robotic fue, do you know what make or brand it is? The two widely known fue "robots" are the NeoGraft and the ARTAS. They are very different from each other. The ARTAS is considered the more advanced of the two and without the graft-drying and graft-bruising problems associated with the suction-to-holding-tank system of the NeoGraft. The ARTAS has been the robotic fue mechanism of choice among top, established ht docs such as Dr. Rahal and the Shapiro brothers, whereas the NeoGraft seems to be marketed to dermatologists and plastic surgeons who want an "easy" way to expand their practice by offering hair transplants.

 

Can you tell us the name of the doc you went to?

 

Best luck on your growth and result.

 

Thanks for your wishes. The machine is an ARTAS and I used Ziering Medical. The Doctor was Edward Ball

[NeilC]

I have not taken any pics yet but I will try later and post them. I have to be honest and tell everyone that when I went there I was not sure what bits of the process the robot actually did. In the event, it is an extremely accurate way of mapping the donor area to select grafts and then punching each selected area so that the follicles are not sheared. A large screen displays the screen and the hair seemed to be selected automatically by the robot but was definitely manually overridden during the process for areas that were difficult such as the very edges of the map for those extra few grafts for a better yield. The extraction and placement of the grafts were done manually by tweezers in the conventional way.

[NeilC]

A robotic arm.......really!

 

I wish you the very best and hope you have an amazing result.

 

Brave man in my eyes though.

 

Any pics?

 

Thanks, I hope to et pics up soon

[NeilC]

Just because it is the latest technique does not make it the best!Very brave of you to be one of the first people to have a machine operate on you. IMO it is best to research and undergo an HT based on the doctors result and not whehter uses a machine or not but I wish you all the best and hope you will be able to share photos of your experience.

 

I partially agree with what you are saying there. Before I went I knew that the robot did not do the actual incisions and transplantation itself and I reckoned that was probably the bit that would be the aesthetic side of things. I thought the robot would punch the hair and then pull it out but in the event it only punches a 1.2mm hole around the hair and the hair was then manually removed. However the robot really locates each hair amazingly accurately and each puncture is overseen by the team on a large screen. The result, I am hoping is that there is less wastage of hair. The pattern of dots on the back of my head looked fairly consistent. The one thing the doctor did say was that the robotic procedure is much less fatiguing on the operator compared to doing it manually so for long procedures consistency would be maintained from beginning to end. Another thing that I feel is important is that during the procedure the skin is stretched very tight before being punched. This effectively means that when the pressure is released the diameter of the hole is effectively about 1.0mm, similar to manual systems.