Do Hair Transplant Surgeons Report the Number of Hair Follicles Damaged During Surgical Extraction?

This below response from our Hair Loss Social Community and Discussion Forums was written by recommended hair restoration surgeon Dr. Ali Emre Karadeniz.

Do hair transplant surgeons maintain a record of the number of grafts transected during extraction and disclose this to the patient if asked?

I don’t think that is practically possible. First of all, it requires significant effort and time during a procedure to calculate the estimated follicle transection rate. Thus it is not routinely calculated by most hair transplant surgeons and it is usually calculated for academic purposes.

Secondly, it is not clear yet what the follicle transection rate should be. I have listened to the follicular unit extraction (FUE) research committees suggestions at the ISHRS meeting, but there still are some unclear points. For instance, I pointed out that it is not adequate to only calculate the transected follicles within the grafts accumulated, but there are also some missing grafts (which should be counted as total transections) that are not possible to determine.

Third, as the transection rate mainly shows the expertise of the hair restoration physician, asking him to disclose it is like asking a company to disclose the weak sides of their product and is against the nature of marketing.

Dr. Ali Emre Karadeniz

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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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