Making incisions first is a similar approach to FUT where the doctor will make them while the technicians dissect the slithers. With your DHT approach, the grafts are out of the body for a shorter time than with FUT though. This approach seems to be working well with improved graft survival rates.
During the extraction process, does the doctor target particular follicular groupings in the order the team is planting? For example, you`re placing from mid scalp towards the hairline. The doctor extracts X amount of ones or twos, incisions are pre made to graft size, therefore, the ones and some twos cant be placed until you reach their designated incision area. These grafts would have to remain out longer until you begin planting say the hairline?
When you say no root touch. Is this referring to the handling of the grafts, picking them up by the hair shaft?
There are lots of studies on graft survival/time out of the body. Would it be possible to conduct a study on the same patient with grafts planted via DHT and grafts planted which have been stored in a holding solution for a number of hours?
Thank you for your questions:
1. During the extraction process, does the doctor target particular follicular groupings in the order the team is planting? For example, you`re placing from mid-scalp towards the hairline. The doctor extracts X amount of ones or twos, incisions are pre-made to graft size, therefore, the ones and some twos cant be placed until you reach their designated incision area. These grafts would have to remain out longer until you begin planting say the hairline?
- It is not necessary that the entire number of slits are made in a single go. For example, if a patient is having 2000 grafts done, the doctor could start by making 500 slits first and after these slits have been planted with the donor hair, the doctor can move on to the new area. The donor area is, initially, observed and dissected into different zones. It is pre-determined where the grafts are going to be extracted from and for which part of the scalp. The hairline is done at the very end and usually, the hair is taken from the nape of the neck.
It is with meticulous planning and attention to minute details that the procedure begins. The main objective during the process is to keep the extracted grafts outside the body for as little time as possible.
2. When you say no root touch. Is this referring to the handling of the grafts, picking them up by the hair shaft?
- The grafts are picked only by their epidermal layer. The mother tissue or the root is untouched. They are directly placed into the dull needle hollow implanters. The implanters go into the slits and the grafts are slid down into the pre-made slits. This facilitates for no man-handling of the grafts.
3. There are lots of studies on graft survival/time out of the body. Would it be possible to conduct a study on the same patient with grafts planted via DHT and grafts planted which have been stored in a holding solution for a number of hours?
- Yes, it is possible.