Follicular Unit Hair Transplant Graft Survival: Reducing the Time out of the Body

These questions, from members of our [tag]Hair Loss[/tag] Community and Discussion Forums, was answered by Coalition hair transplant surgeon Dr. Glenn Charles:

The shorter the length of time [tag]follicular unit[/tag] grafts are outside the body before implanting the higher percentage survival rate. Could the first half of the morning be extractions and the second half to lunchtime be implantation? Then repeat for the afternoon: first half extraction, second half implantation? This would potentially reduce the time grafts are out of the body by half.

The only consideration I have with this approach is the anesthetic having to be administered in both donor and recipient areas in very short succession but it would only be for half the normal area so it may not matter.

Any thoughts from patients and surgeons would be appreciated.

One of the methods I have used in my [tag]follicular unit extraction[/tag] ([tag]FUE[/tag]) [tag]hair transplant[/tag] cases with [tag]ARTAS [/tag] is to make the recipient sites first. The two main reasons I do this is to know exactly how many extractions I need and as soon the extractions are finished we can place the remaining grafts.

I have also instituted another technician that places the grafts that were extracted first into the recipient sites while we are still extracting grafts. This significantly reduces the time out of body in an attempt to increase graft survival rates.

Dr. Glenn Charles
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David (TakingThePlunge)
Editorial Assistant and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center, and the Hair Loss Q & A Blog.
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