FUE procedure - 3500+ incisions in donor site but only 2500 grafts transplanted to recipient site

[nl502c]

I recently had an FUE procedure of 2500 grafts. I had some concerns post-op on FUE extraction success rate as my entire donor site (back and sides) had been touched for procedure while many other patients with similar size procedures had much less area/incisions. This is in comparison to the many past patients I've seen from my specific doctor as well as many other doctors. Due to this concern, I took the time to thoroughly count the number of incisions made during the procedure and I'm confident there is at least 3,500 and possibly up to 4,000 incisions in my donor area. I reached out to the doctor (prefer to not share the name for the time being) about my concerns with method/proof of incision count and was given the explanation below. I'm reaching out to this community for input on the validity of this explanation as I've never come across it in my exhaustive research that I did before and after the procedure. Also, I'll note that everything does look good on the recipient site in terms of quality, graft count, etc...so really just concerned about the donor site.

Doctor's explanation:  My hair length (which my doctor described as hair length from skin surface to root/follicle...my recollection/interpretation from our conversation) were deeper than the average patient which made extractions more difficult. More specifically, incisions were made (mostly at 4mm I believe) and then the extraction was attempted. For some of the incision (1,000+ in my case I suppose), the doctor claims the grafts were not actually extracted because they would not easily come out. Instead, they were left as-is in the recipient site so they would not be damaged by exerting to much force and risk damaging the graft/follicle. The doctor claimed they were undamaged because the incision depth didn't go all way down to the follicle. By leaving them as-is (incision only, not extracted), those follicles/hairs will remain undamaged and continue to grow in place. The doctor also claimed that all grafts extracted were healthy (none transected because of the aforementioned incision depth) and transferred to the recipient site (2,500). The doctor also claims I was not overharvested for the aforementioned reasons. However, if that's true I still have a 1,000+ extra FUE scars.

Questions:

1) Has anyone ever heard of this explanation for an FUE procedure (i.e. incisions made but the follicles weren't actually extracted)?

2) If this is really a valid explanation, does the ~3 to 2 ratio of incisions (3,500+) to actual extractions ((2,500) seem reasonable? To me this seems incredibly high that of every 3 incisions made only 2 grafts were successfully extracted resulting in 3,500 FUE scars for 2,500 grafts in best case scenario...assuming those "un-removed" 1,000 follicles are indeed undamaged and still there.

 

 

 

 

[jjsrader]

Great question - ask a surgeon on this forum.  Anything less than that is a non-surgeon opinion and worth .02 cents.

[nl502c]

how do I ask a surgeon on this forum…relatively new member.

[jjsrader]

I think you put the symbol '@' in front of their name - they see it and perhaps answer.

[Adrenaline7]

Also name the clinic who did this for the sake of the rest of us considering transplants.