Necrosis

[Birdness]

How common is necrosis following hair transplant surgery? What are the risk factors?I am 56 and in good health, non-smoker and no high blood pressure or diabetes.

Does my age put me at higher risk? Some info on the incidence in general as well as any other useful info would be appreciated.

[Mickey85]

there was a very bad necrosis case on another forum from a very highly regarded surgeon. it was absolutrly shocking. i have only seen a few cases of it though but am unsure of the how rare or the incident rate..

[ej]

From what I have seen on the forums (not in person), necrosis appears to be more likely with what some doctors refer to as mega sessions and is more likely to occur in a patient who has had multiple surgeries in the past.

 

I think the reason behind this would be that blood supply is compromised causing tissue failure. Dense packing would also be a concern for me as the grafts are fighting for blood supply so you could see a poor result, yield or necrosis.

Lifestyle is a factor also, if the patient is a smoker it could cause issues, any medication that restricts blood flow could cause a problem, this should be addressed at the consultation stage with a medical questionaire.Sometimes a temporary change in lifestyle may be beneficial.

 

 

My experience as a repair patient was, and is to graft at a lower density to ensure an optimum yield and lessen any associated risks with surgery.

 

 

Hope this helps

 

 

ejj

Edited March 30, 2013 by ej

[Birdness]

 

 

My experience as a repair patient was, and is to graft at a lower density to ensure an optimum yield and lessen any associated risks

 

 

ejj

 

What is considered lower density packing and what constitutes a mega session?

[ej]

A lot depends on the patient, scalp laxity, virgin scalp,or repair as is my situation. For my repair my doctors strategy was to graft at 30 beard grafts per cms sq, obviously this would not be the case for a virgin scalp that would probably need more to make a cosmetic improvement.

 

Graft numbers depend on many factors some patients have a procedure over two or three days, some doctors use automated devices others manual . Depending on the patients characteristics doctors can do large strip procedures in one day and have great results.

 

The results section of this forum has a lot of great cases with graft numbers and density of grafts placed documented, its a good place to get an idea of what can be accomplished with an amount of grafts in one or more procedures.

 

Regards

 

ejj

Edited March 30, 2013 by ej

[HARIRI]

NECROSIS!!!

 

I hate this word. That is why I'm an anti mega session member. EJ explained it very well. He is a veteran and a victim of it.

[Blake Bloxham]

Bird,

 

Altogether, I think it is safe to say that it's fairly uncommon to suffer necrosis in hair transplant surgery. However, I say that with some hesitation because it's a situation where it is rare, but devastating to the small minority who suffer necrosis.

 

Like Ej stated, necrosis simply refers to tissue death secondary to a lack of blood supply. In hair transplant surgery, this can occur in a few ways:

 

1. When follicular unit grafts are packed too densely into an area of the recipient scalp, which overwhelms the blood supply and causes scalp necrosis.

2. When improper and overly tight Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) closures "pinch" skin in the donor region and suffocate the tissue (don't know if I've ever seen or heard of a case of this outside of a textbook).

3. When grafts are removed - via Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) - in too great a quantity around a certain area and the now compromised blood supply to this region leads to necrosis (again, I think I've only seen this in a text book).

 

If you are concerned about necrosis, I'd definitely take some time to discuss the issue with your hair transplant surgeon and make sure you're confident moving forward.

 

I hope this helps!

[Birdness]

Bird,

 

Altogether, I think it is safe to say that it's fairly uncommon to suffer necrosis in hair transplant surgery. However, I say that with some hesitation because it's a situation where it is rare, but devastating to the small minority who suffer necrosis.

 

Like Ej stated, necrosis simply refers to tissue death secondary to a lack of blood supply. In hair transplant surgery, this can occur in a few ways:

 

1. When follicular unit grafts are packed too densely into an area of the recipient scalp, which overwhelms the blood supply and causes scalp necrosis.

2. When improper and overly tight Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) closures "pinch" skin in the donor region and suffocate the tissue (don't know if I've ever seen or heard of a case of this outside of a textbook).

3. When grafts are removed - via Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) - in too great a quantity around a certain area and the now compromised blood supply to this region leads to necrosis (again, I think I've only seen this in a text book).

 

If you are concerned about necrosis, I'd definitely take some time to discuss the issue with your hair transplant surgeon and make sure you're confident moving forward.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Does anyone have an idea of the incidence ???? 1/100, 1/1000, 1/10000, etc