Is FUE dying, review of ISHRS article by Dr. Lindsey

[Dr. William Lindsey]

In this short video we review a recent lead article in The Forum, the ISHRS society's publication for hair transplant doctors.  The society has been on a roll lately, trying to combat black market clinics, surgery being performed without a doctor, and FUE slaughterhouses.  

Essentially the society says what leading doctors have said for years....FUE has limitations, and YOU the consumer need to know the pros and cons of both strip and fue, so that you, not a sales person, can make the best decision for your head.

 

The video is:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHEj9qdSqUs

 

Dr. Lindsey

[ndubya]

No sir, in the hands of a Great surgeon fue is the way forward.

I have only had fue, and the results are undetectable. No Big scar across the back of my head.

[LonelyGraft]

Not gonna watch that video but I’m going to respond to the title of this thread.

 

sorry, fue is here to stay and continues to overshadow fut by a HUGE margin in terms of number of procedures so no it is not “dying.”

 

yes, fut is inherently the better procedure because it is not a blind procedure. But I think most patients would be willing to trade off a 5-10% yield and undergo fue.

[CosmoKramer]

Fair points in your video, Doc, but came off a bit promotional in my view. 

I believe in personal responsibility, it’s up to individuals that are interested in any procedure to do their homework to avoid the pitfalls and cons out there....But, no, FUE is not dying, in my view, globally, it’s light-years ahead volume-wise compared to FUT, that’s not to say in the best of HT FUT Surgeons hands, that you won’t get a great result with FUT.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

Promotional???   Cosmo I'm simply reviewing the lead article in the hair forum.   Like all trends in medicine and politics, the pendulum swings too far and then comes back...probably too far..and then so forth.

 

No doubt FUE is here to stay, and in patients with good donor hair and healthy roots with good connective tissue around them...it works probably as well as strip.  Unfortunately many people have fine hair roots and they get shredded, yes shredded...during the most gentle extraction (like skinny little plants in this video ((from way back before my beard ))

 

 

AND, given the volume of no yield or low yield FUE repairs I do, and the few other hair docs here in the US that I interact with do as well, I'm pretty sure a lot of people are getting butchered.  Usually by a clinic just starting out in hair that added hair as a new profit center to an ENT/derm/plastic surgery office.    And by the time we see them, the story is usually the same, they got "sold" by a slick ad and didn't do any research.  Til it was too late.  I've seen doctors do exactly the same thing.

 

Lastly, I have now heard from several doctors, a bunch of techs wanting jobs, and a few patients...that with one of the robot systems this is occurring:   Since the company supposedly gets a dollar every time the machine "fires"...the doctor puts on a 1.5 mm punch so that he/she will get at least one hair for transplantation.  And if they get 5 or 6 hairs, supposedly a cutter will sliver that like we did minigrafts and micrografts in the early 90's.   Now I haven't seen this personally but after hearing the same story from maybe 10 people, where there is smoke there is usually fire.  

 

I suspect that FUE and strip butchery is here to stay, and only by educational sites, such as this forum, can you the patient get educated and make the best choice for you.  But get educated first, see a real doctor at your consultation, look at some results of that doctor, see a surgery going on if possible, and then decide what is best.  I knew this post would be controversial and frankly MOST people on this forum are well educated.  I'm not trying to sway you guys, you've already made your mind up and most of you know the facts.  Its the virgin head that has seen a sales person who has tailored a surgery to fit that customer's budget and downtime with no discussion of the big issues, that I'm trying to reach--before they impulse buy a surgery.

 

Dr. Lindsey