What Exactly is "Dense Packing"?

[Pilot Ron]

I've been reading alot of information where doctors and patients have discussed "dense packing".

 

Does anyone know if the grafts per square inch of dense packing is more, less, or the same as natural hair? I realize it will be different for each patient, but am wondering if the community can assume that dense packing is "generally" the same as natural hair.

 

Thanks!

Ron

[Pilot Ron]

I've been reading alot of information where doctors and patients have discussed "dense packing".

 

Does anyone know if the grafts per square inch of dense packing is more, less, or the same as natural hair? I realize it will be different for each patient, but am wondering if the community can assume that dense packing is "generally" the same as natural hair.

 

Thanks!

Ron

[thanatopsis_awry]

It's a totally relative term, which is basically applied to cases where the doctor (and patient) are striving for something approximating -- if not outright reaching -- "true density", or the density that existed pre-MPB. Even "true density", however, is a relative term, and the hairs/cm that we have pre-MPB varies person to person.

 

That said, in the vast majority of "dense packing" cases the actual density is *not* the same as the "natural hair". In theory, it's entirely possible, though, and pre-MPB can be matched. Generally, though, it's about walking the fine line of conserving donor and creating an "illusion of density", while offering an optimal balance of actual density while preserving the said donor for the future or for attacking a large balding area.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

Thanatopsis is an excellent poster and is right on on this one. It is critical to recognize that doctors have a knife, not a magic wand; and that the goal is the illusion of lots of hair. Someday, when cloning is available, and again I don't think it will be in my practice life, then creating pre-MPB hair density may become fact.

 

Density and packing is a long and involved topic and includes lots of variables including but not limited to:

 

1 donor hair quantity

2 amount of scalp to be covered

3 donor hair thickness

4 hair scalp color match

5 potential for future hairloss

and...one that is difficult to predict preop...6 grippiness of the recipient scalp. We periodically get a patient whose scalp will just not grab onto and hold grafts. Often, if we place some grafts and there is popping, we just move elsewhere a few minutes to allow the clotting cascade to "grab" onto the grafts and then we can go back and insert into adjacent slits. But once in a while we get a patient who just keeps popping as if his scalp won't grab onto the grafts. Success in these folks requires alot of patience, and spreading the recipient slits just a bit farther apart. A nice result is still achieved, it just takes a bit longer.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA