GRAFT SURVIVAL and Reducing time out of the body

[whispy]

The shorter the length of time grafts are outside the body before implanting the higher percentage survival rate.

 

I have discounted procedures with several surgeons because after further investigation I have established that they do not carry out the entire extraction and implantation personally.

This was on occasion only found out through patients personal experiences posted on various forums.

You are after all basing your decision on the reputation of the surgeon.

Technicians are not reviewed by name so it is almost impossible to gauge your potential end result.although many are very skilled.

 

Whilst I would choose a surgeons total involvement method I have a question regarding the length time grafts are out of the body.

 

With my preferred method of the surgeon carrying out all extractions and implantation this will slow the whole procedure down in comparison to a team of technicians doing extractions and implanting.

 

Based on a surgeon extracting all grafts in the morning and then implanting all in the afternoon.

 

So for example the first graft was extracted at say 8.30am and it was the last one to be implanted at say 5pm that is a long time to be out of the body(worst case scenario)

The best case scenario would be that a graft was extracted just before lunchtime and implanted just after.so you see you can have a difference of say 30 minutes to 8.5 hours!

 

If grafts were used in rotation ie. first out/first in then that would give a standard out of the body time of approx 4 hours for every graft,but I cannot see that possible in practice due to different size grafts being needed at different times of the procedure.

 

Question

Could the 1st half of the morning be extractions and the 2nd half to lunchtime be implantation? repeat for the afternoon 1st half extraction 2nd half implantation?

This would potentially reduce the time grafts are out of the body by half.

 

The only consideration I have with this approach is the anesthetic having to be administered in both donor and recipient areas in very short succession,but it would only be for half the normal area so it may not matter.

 

Any thoughts from patients and surgeons would be appreciated.

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

One of the methods I have used in my RUE ARTAS cases is to make the recipient sites first. The two main reasons I do this is to know exactly how many extractions I need and as soon the extractions are finished we can place the remaining grafts. I have also instituted another technician that is placing the grafts that were extracted first into the recipient sites while we are still extracting grafts. This significantly reduces the time out of body in an attempt to increase graft survival rates.

[1978matt]

One of the methods I have used in my RUE ARTAS cases is to make the recipient sites first. The two main reasons I do this is to know exactly how many extractions I need and as soon the extractions are finished we can place the remaining grafts. I have also instituted another technician that is placing the grafts that were extracted first into the recipient sites while we are still extracting grafts. This significantly reduces the time out of body in an attempt to increase graft survival rates.

 

Funny you should mention that as yesterday I was watching a video about ARTAS by Dr Ziering. He said he made the recipient sites the day before. Can that really be done?! I would have thought they would heal shut in a matter of hours.