Follicle transection rate: disclosable to the patient?

[FUE2014]

As per the title, in general will doctors maintain a record of the number of grafts transected during extraction and disclose this to the patient if asked?

[Ali Emre Karadeniz]

As per the title, in general will doctors maintain a record of the number of grafts transected during extraction and disclose this to the patient if asked?

 

I don't think that is practically possible.

 

First of all, it requires significant effort and time during a procedure to calculate the estimated follicle transection rate. Thus it is not routinely calculated by most surgeons and it is usually calculated for academic purposes.

 

Secondly, it is not clear yet what the follicle transection rate should be. I have listened to the FUE research committees suggestions at the ISHRS meeting, but there still are some unclear points. For instance, I pointed out that it is not adequate to only calculate the transected follicles within the grafts accumulated, but there are also some missing grafts (which should be counted as total transections) that are not possible to determine.

 

Third, as the transection rate mainly shows the expertise of the surgeon, asking him to disclose it is like asking a company to disclose the weak sides of their product and is against the nature of marketing.

[FUE2014]

Third, as the transection rate mainly shows the expertise of the surgeon, asking him to disclose it is like asking a company to disclose the weak sides of their product and is against the nature of marketing.

 

Thanks doc, from a layman's point of view, the third point you made that I have highlighted above is the reason I had in mind why a lot of surgeons would not want to, or may not accurately represent, the transection rate, assuming this data was available.

[ej]

After my second procedure at BHR the Doctor was more than happy to disclose the transection rate to me.

 

Regards

 

ej

[Sean]

No i dont think docs would take the time to evaluate scalp to see how many follicles transected or resulted in shockloss/no growth. Some docs will tell you things are ok at nine month mark when things really arent. They might even say look result inanother 12 months and more may grow. If you do not display your progress online or document each and every step, it is hard for any recourse since thedoc can make up anything as excuse for lack of growth. At theend of the day, if you got 3000 grafts and a density that should be high enuff for thick luscious hair and you nearly look the same you did before transplant, well that meansmany hairs transected, shickloss and wastage occurred and you didnt havemuch improvement. In some cases, some folks have had 50-60% graft growth missing, even when you are confidently told a docs specific FUT growth rates match their FUE in yield. Like i said, record conversations, document, keep all previous and current emails, monitor to see if any posts are deleted in forums, and keep track. You pay thousands so you shouldn't be left hanging. I have barely heard of any partial monetary refundsgiven if something messes up. In most cases,you end up being forced to go back to same doc for repairs, hoping they resolve issue & original concerns this time without wasting grafts.

[scar5]

In 2006, when I was even more naive than I am now, I marched into the pre-op consultation armed with my 'list of questions' I sourced from, I think, HLP or HTN, determined to make the clinic accountable proclaiming, "I want a complete list of all follicles, numbers of ones, twos, three etc., as well as a number of transected.

 

My wish was granted. I received an A4 piece of paper with gridlines drawn across it and columns indicating the numbers of grafts form respective regions, the number of hairs in it and the number of transected grafts. The transection rate was negligible. I think it was always only single digits, indicating less than 5%.

 

A year or two later, a leading FUE doc told me I probably got 50-60% yield!

 

To cut to the chase, I agree with Dr K here. It simply isn't worth their while to count and record transection, and if they did, they would fudge it. Furthermore, it is known that partially transected hairs can grow, even with less hairs. So they get planted too.

 

BTW

 

Later that day of the surgery, I asked to see the drill and from behind my back i heard the doctor disengage one chuck of the drill, remove it, place it on the table, and insert a different chuck, that he proceeded to show me.