A ruined fue operation

[walky]

Hello

I am in the 5th day of hair transplant and some of my grafts are falling out. I know that it is something expected. But there is an issue bugging me and i am pretty sure that it is a sign of terrible operation.

At day three i mistakenly pulled out 4 grafts. And I was shocked that the follice bulbs are bended over itself. Today i have scabs falling out and some of them come with a dry shaft on which bended bulbs are visible. Anyone has an idea if there is a chance of them to survive

[gillenator]

walky,

 

Was there any bleeding from the lost grafts? Usually the grafts and/or crusts do not come off at day 5 post-op. Are you by chance washing the area and rubbing with your fingers?

[walky]

Hi gill

actually i am not much worried about the grafts that fall out because it was my mistake to pull them out. My problem is the shape of grafts. their bulbs are all folded over itself. It looks like the grafts were not placed properly. All the grafts that are popped out looked like the one i posted. Bended in the middle.

[Rawkerboi]

Please post some pics, of you don't mind

[BadBeat]

With all due respect, how do you know they weren't placed correctly? What are you basing this on?

[walky]

Here the images of follices that falled out. Please note how the bulbs look. And those follices did not pulled out because of being missplanted, They are the ones randomly pulled out because of my nails.

[voxman]

I would like to see a Dr. or Tech respond to this one - I have no experience in placing grafts in one's head, but these look like they were shoved in and folded over? I think walky needs some real objective advice on this.

[arussell]

There are a lot of unknowns here. We don't know where the transplant was done, or the doc? Did the doc do any of inplanting or was it only done by techs? Who were the techs and what was their experience? Touchy subjects .... Gillinator is correct in that the hair shaft will start to extrude around the 5 day time frame on some patients, this is highly variable and can take much longer to happen. Many factors can contribute to when this "extrusion" takes place, He is also correct in that if you "pulled" a seated graft out there would be bleeding. Many times if there is scabbing some grafts "look" like they are pulled out but at 3 days or 5 days there would in fact be a noticeable trickle of blood. The above grafts pictured are what are called "hooks". They are not what is considered great technique but it doesn't mean that they would grow from the "bulb" or dermal papilla which generally is what is being implanted. Hooks can occur if a follicle is placed in a recipient site not designed for that size follicle. Most are corrected with gentle manipulation. Don't panic, this does not look like "lost" grafts. Call the clinic and talk to them if you are concerned.

[JoeTillman]

Agreed with Ailene and I think it is most likely because they were stuffed into incisions too deeply and possibly handled from the shaft of the hair and not from the surrounding tissue.

[walky]

Thank you all with your great replies. I hope the result will be satisfying. They have used 0.7 mm punch for the extraction and they used a 0.5 mm slit holes for the placement. They said they were comfortable to use thinnest equipment with my hair because my grafts were also very thin.

of the 10 grafts popped out, 7 or 8 of them were hook shaped. I feel really sad with what I see but I am happy that my scalp is completely healed in the 6th day of operation. I have no chance to pull any more grafts by mistake.

6 months later we will see if the hooked grafts work or not.

[hairweare]

Too bad we are not told who performed the procedure. I am somewhat suspicious of the technique since in FUE each step must be done correctly in order to optimize the yield to which is equal to or nearly as good as a strip procedure.

[SomeRandomGuy]

Thank you all with your great replies. I hope the result will be satisfying. They have used 0.7 mm punch for the extraction and they used a 0.5 mm slit holes for the placement. They said they were comfortable to use thinnest equipment with my hair because my grafts were also very thin.

of the 10 grafts popped out, 7 or 8 of them were hook shaped. I feel really sad with what I see but I am happy that my scalp is completely healed in the 6th day of operation. I have no chance to pull any more grafts by mistake.

6 months later we will see if the hooked grafts work or not.

 

pic looks alright to me. Think you will happy after 4-6 months.

[walky]

Thanks all

I was opt in a clinic in istanbul. Its not a well known place but there were three transplantations simultaneously the day I had the operation. I will not share the name of the clinic unless the results are good.

I have a question, again... Does damaged follices continue grow hair? Its 7 days post op and i can clearly notice that the grafts transplanted are growing. Does that mean hooked or not the grafts are alive and will continue to regrow after the shock loss phase?

[scar5]

I don't know anything other than just what I just looked up online..

..and guess what?

 

Slits too small/narrow

FUs purchased too low on the unit with forceps and rammed in.

 

Result: hooked graft, inflammation, swelling, out pops the hooked graft!

 

Some docs make wider slits for FUE for this very reason.

 

FUE implanter pen avoids this problem.

[Swooping]

Mechanical trauma is something you want to reduce to aim for a most optimal yield. However that doesn't mean that the graft won't grow or will grow retarded.

 

Try to relax mate. Just a game of patience now!

[johnny24]

Walky, where did you do your HT??

 

I don't recall having any grafts falling out when i did mine...i do recall having hair fall out from the transplanted grafts to make way for the new hair, but not the whole graft..interesting

[Tav1]

You guys should check Zekeriya Kul as well. He charges 1 euro per graft and his results are very very satisfying. Unfortunately he refuses to translant more than 1500 grafts in a day . He also refuses to transplant on the vertex area.

 

Walky - you posted the above in another thread, so you're really offering quite a bit of conflicting information. You state your Doc's results are "very satisfying" yet you started this thread? Very confusing.

[walky]

I don't understand why people in this forum are so suspicious about everything. Before I had the operation I searched lots of doctors. Dr Kul was one of the possible options for me. I liked his work and references. But still 4000 euro he asked was not an amount I could afford

can you clarify at what point you are confused?

[scar5]

Wallet

Wise move,

Don't mention the docs name. It does you no good. People asking for the name of the doc or clinic don't care about you usually. You compromise yourself for no good reason.

Hopefully, only the bad grafts popped and you'll be fine. Your post is very valuable to us just as it is. No names is a smart policy.

 

And watch out for the PMs too.

Edited May 1, 2015 by scar5
Pm bit

[ZeoRanger]

A doctor charging less than 1.5 euro per graft? I hope the price does not reflect the quality of work.

 

I'm a bit confused - I thought it was typical for shedded hairs to have that little kink/hook?

 

Whether that is a damaged graft is really hard to tell. I feel like you can never distinguish btwn scabs or other stuff. Fact is you'll bleed when you pull out a graft before it's anchored.

 

Then again you're also not meant to cut hair using clippers before the 6th month. A theory I don't really understand because the grafts are supposed to be securily anchored after day 9.

[walky]

Thanks scar.

Theres no point to share the name of the clinic I was operated. Typically a hair transplantation price in istanbul ranges between 1000 to 1500 euro for a 3500 graft operation. If the operation is held by a plastic surgeon then the prices dramaticaly increase.

I was hoping to prove that you do not need to pay much for a successful hair transplant. But if the roots of the grafts transplanted are all folded, hook shaped, I am not hopeful about the final result. It will be a very stressful 6 months.

Since tav has brought a completely irrelevant thread to here, I have to clarify that I am NOT operated by Dr Kul. I will not declare at which clinic I am operated.

There are lots and lots of cheap clinics in istanbul and their schedules are always full. But what I realised is, if you want no risk then you need to pay 5 to 10 times more than cheap clinics cost you

[ZeoRanger]

Were you operated by a doctor as well or only by techs/nurses?

 

Price should not be the main indicator, reports posted by former patients are the most important research tool. I wouldn't focus by result from clinics because their marketing peeps will only select the most stellar result.

 

As long as the grafts get enough blood supply in the scalp and were not transected, they should grow.

[walky]

Thanks Zoe

I was operated by nurses only. The guy who makes the extractions seemed like a professional. He talked to me, showed me the grafts, explained what makes the differences between a good extraction and bad extraction and many other information. Only the nurses helped to plant the grafts I am not confident with. we will see.

I choose this clinic because one of my friend had his operation 2 years ago in the same place and his results are just perfect. But the team that operated me was not the same team he had.

[Blake Bloxham]

Walky,

 

I agree with a few others here. It looks like the grafts were handled improperly and forced into slits that were too small. 0.7mm FUE grafts are already prone to excessive stress and strain, so I'm having a hard time figuring out why they were placed in 0.5mm slits?

 

I don't want to detract from your situation or "kick you while you're down," but this is a good example of why I take a lot of issue with this technician-run FUE model. Like you said before, the team that operated on your friend was completely different than the one who operated on you, and they have no reason to take any responsibility for your results -- good or bad. As a patient, you have no idea who they were or their qualifications. It sounds like they were also distracted by working on 3 other patients at the same time?? This isn't fair to patients. It may seem trivial, but these are thousands of grafts that are now gone from your donor supply, and who knows what type of further restoration you'll need in the future.

 

There is no point worrying for now. It's very difficult to say how the result will turn out. However, only time will tell. So relax and hope for the best.

 

I apologize if anything I said above seemed unnecessary. I just feel very passionately about this issue. Please, let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.

[walky]

Thanks Blake

That was a great reply.

While I am eager to understand if my operation is ruined or not, its not the only reason I share my experience. I want to be helpful to others. Before the operation, I made a lot of research and I could find no reason to why an operation can be successful or not. I thought a tech/nurse run surgery is identical to the work a plastic surgeon does. I tought human factor is not that important in those operations. With my experience there is clear evidence what kind of mistakes can be done when the operation is not handled properly. I will continue sharing my progress and try to be informative about what to expect in cheap clinics. I hope that information will be helpfull to others.

Here attached my last image. Its day 8 and completely healed. Thats the only good side of 0.5 mm slit I think