Revision of bad hair transplant

[mmhce]

I would like to find out, in the instance where an individual has had a bad transplant:

 

1.What is the normal route of revising a bad transplant on a patient?

 

2.Is it possible to remove the non-atrophic hair follicles on the top of the head and re-transplant it to another point on the top of the head?

 

3.Is such a re-transplantation advisable or economical?

 

4.Would this be too much trauma for a hair follicle to be removed, and retransplanted again a second time?

 

Thanks.

[Dr. Paul Shapiro]

Originally posted by Paul Shapiro, MD:

Mmhce

There is more then one way to revise a bad transplant on a patient and there are many factors to consider.

These factors are:

1. How large are the grafts from the bad transplant

2. Where were these grafts placed

3. How low was the hairline and temporal angle made

4. How much donor do you have left

5. What is the color, and texture of your hair.

We do not move native hair from the front of the head to transplant elsewhere. We only move native hair from the safe donor area. That is because even non-atrophic hair that is taken from any area but the safe donor area has the potential to become atrophic, and most likely will.

But, it is possible to move hair follicles from previous bad transplants and re-implant them. That is because the grafts from previous bad transplants are taken from the safe donor area. We do this often with great success. Most of the time we remove them with round punch out tools. The punched out areas usually heal with out any scar or a slight discoloring. Sometimes we surgically remove the whole front hairline like removing a strip from the donor area. When we do this, it does leave a fine line scar that needs to be transplanted into to hide the scar.

 

Below are a few examples of some of the repairs I have done.

 

The patient below was fortunate enough to have his old grafts placed with the hairline and temporal angle correctly. Since he had coarse curly hair I just transplanted around his old grafts and made the pluggy look disappear.

IMG]http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/ll194/paulshapiromd/Slide2.jpg[/img]

 

 

The following patient grafts were too obvious and I did a series of three punch out sessions and then took a strip from his donor area, which yeilded 1,000 FU grafts to transplant. Since his front half was all old large grafts, I could approach a natural lookwith this first session, but he stills needs more punch outs and one more session to get a completely natural look. I hope to get 500 FU in the next sesion. Some patients would not have enough donor left to do a second session. I think the first session is still a big imporvement over his original state. Sometimes in repairs you have to work with what is left and do the best you can.

 

I do not know if your situation is similar to either of these two patients.

As to whether it is economically advisable you should get some consults to find out.

Most clinics are like Shapiro Medical Group, in which we do free consults so there will be no cost to you and you can get educated about your options.

 

FUE may be another option for you. FUE is more expensive then strip removal, but sometimes the only option if your donor is depleted.

 

I hope you find this helpful

DR. Paul

[mmhce]

Thanks for the reply Dr. Shapiro.

 

The photographs were particularly good in conveying the point.