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Necessary to use Lidocaine or can you use topical anesthesia?


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  • Regular Member

Particularly with Body Hair Transplant (BHT), there are safety limitations with regard to anesthesia. The body donor area (chest, abdomen) is much larger than the scalp donor area for the same number of grafts. That means that you must use more anesthesia, but that can be dangerous so you must limit the amount of body donor area that can be used in one session.

So I wonder if there are alternative anesthesia methods that aren’t as dangerous? Topical? Acupuncture? Would the pain be unbearable without the lidocaine or tolerable?

While we’re on the subject, do the needle sticks in your scalp to inject the lidocaine damage follicles?
 

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  • Senior Member

I suppose it's possible that some minor transection could occur while applying anesthesia but again, it would be minor IMHO.

And depending on the instrument used for extracting the BH grafts, I still think the pain would be intolerable for most patients.

Gillenator

Independent Patient Advocate

I am not a physician and not employed by any doctor/clinic. My opinions are not medical advice, but are my own views which you read at your own risk.

Supporting Physicians: Dr. Robert Dorin: The Hairloss Doctors in New York, NY

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  • Senior Member

The injections are not only to limit pain but to decrease bleeding, so you will not be able to substitute this and injections should not cause transection of the follicular unit. Shock loss is more due to the blood limiting effect of the injections. Numbing creams and Acupuncture will not prepare you for surgery. You need to have proper administration of anaesthesia and we have not ever administered a level that is dangerous and even in large Strips of 5000 plus grafts, therefore you should not really worry about that if you go to a reputable clinic. So, it is not just about pain but also bleeding and the injections also raise the skin up as the fluid enters. If you have pain you bleed more also, so there are a few reasons why this is needed. As said, for Strip , FUE and body hair, a reputable clinic should know the levels they are administering and stay in safe levels. 

Edited by sl

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  • Regular Member

Thanks for the replies. If we are talking about body hair, which is not as dense as scalp donor hair, I guess it would be easy to visually insert the anesthetic needle where there are gaps between hairs.

But on the beard donor area, which is pretty dense, I wonder how they can do that without transecting follicles.

Then if you are adding density to an existing transplanted hairline, and doing it over several sessions on consecutive days, I am a bit concerned about poking the same area over and over again each session.

Also if one reason for the injections is to limit the bleeding, I guess that's helpful to keep blood from getting everywhere and obscuring visibility, but the newly implanted grafts need blood ASAP. I hope it doesn't limit the blood when it is needed.

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  • Senior Member

Most BH hair grows in one hair FUs, two occasionally...and continual incisions made within the same surface area does raise the trauma level to the area and the amount of them should be kept at lower levels IMHO.

Gillenator

Independent Patient Advocate

I am not a physician and not employed by any doctor/clinic. My opinions are not medical advice, but are my own views which you read at your own risk.

Supporting Physicians: Dr. Robert Dorin: The Hairloss Doctors in New York, NY

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  • Regular Member

thanks gillenator. I am more concerned about the recipient area, my hairline area where I want to add density. I don't mind transecting a few chest and abdomen hairs, since I have plenty of them, but don't want to damage the existing hairline area hair when attempting to add density. So my question was more about repeatedly poking the recipient area with the anesthetic needle over several sessions on consecutive days. Is that needle very fine or thick?

Also worried about the beard area where the hair is pretty dense. Can they inject the anesthesia between the follicles so as to not damage them?

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  • Senior Member

Yes my friend, the injections can and will undoubtedly be made between any of the FUs...the needle to administer the anesthesia is small...the lidocaine fluid is not thick and is usually mixed with saline and/or other medications to help minimize bleeding.

I have no idea how dense your existing hairline is but the surgeon will wear a scope with light, so what looks too dense to the naked eye is quite different when the magnification is raised.

Gillenator

Independent Patient Advocate

I am not a physician and not employed by any doctor/clinic. My opinions are not medical advice, but are my own views which you read at your own risk.

Supporting Physicians: Dr. Robert Dorin: The Hairloss Doctors in New York, NY

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  • 3 months later...

This is an interesting thread and I personally have a special interest in administration of anaesthesia. Anaesthesia has a role in reducing pain but also in vaso-constriction of the blood vessels when administered with adrenaline so as to reduce bleeding. While there is no evidence of injections causing any damage to follicles while injecting, I have recently switched to blunt cannulas under the skin for administering the local anaesthetic. I have run my own research about this on our clients and it showed a significant drop in pain scores. i also think it is safer for follicles as it is a blunt tip that only spreads around follicles rather than puncture anything. I will share the full paper with you as it is currently pending publication. 

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