A Short ARTAS Presentation, Dr. Bernard Arocha

[ArochaHair]

Here is a new video that we put together to give a short overview of how the ARTAS works along with a few results. We will be producing more videos in the future to share developments and updates regarding ARTAS technology from Restoration Robotics.

 

[ArochaHair]

If you have any questions regarding the ARTAS feel free to ask. In fact, we may put the answer in our next video:)

[ArochaHair]

Good questions. The punch is the focus of ARTAS right now and they've been working on reducing the size for a while. Yes, the punch can be switched out if a different size is seen as being necessary during a surgery.

 

When ARTAS first started out, and for the first couple of years, the punch was really big and was counterproductive to the whole point of FUE ( non-visible scarring). The scarring wasn't terrible and was in fact difficult to see with shorter hair cuts but it meant that fewer grafts could be taken out before the donor area would be affected visually and the dots were more pronounced when the scalp was shaved.

 

Now a lot of the work being done is below the 1mm threshold with sizes being mostly in the .9mm range and we're getting into .85 territory. By the end of the year it's expected that .8mm will be achieved which is as small as is necessary. Anything beyond that is in the realm of diminishing returns and serves only for marketing fluff.

 

Keep in mind, ARTAS took a lot of heat for the punch size early on (justifiably) and in response they could have easily just switched to a much smaller punch to satisfy the critics and pushed out the marketing to reflect this. Instead they have worked to make each punch size actually work when being used by the robot. It's been a steady march and they have set milestone goals and achieved each one. The extracted grafts look great and they're growing just as well as you'll find with any manual or motorized extraction technique.