Dr. Paul Shapiro, 4,000grafts 6 month Follow Up

[Paul Shapiro MD]

This 34 year old male came in for his 6 month follow up visit today. He is very happy with his work.
He is a Norwood type IV €“ V and the males in his family have significant balding. He has significant balding in his crown but has not been on propecia. He did not want to go on propecia at the time of surgery. As you can see he looks like he has lost some more crown hair over the past 6 month so we started him on propecia today.
In a case like his there is always the decision to make of if we should cover more area and get less density or cover less area and get more density. Since he has the potential of becoming a Norwood type VI we decided to cover a larger area. I covered 130-140 sq.cm. of scalp with 4,000 FU. I went back to the top of the crown but did not do any crown work.
This resulted in a good coverage of hair with a natural look in 6 months. I do expect to see some more growth and greater density at his one year follow up visit. As I said he is very happy with the transplant already and he feels that we have accomplished his goals.

 

[bullitnut]

looks great he will be overjoyed in a few more months nice work doc ¬b`

 

[JJ09]

This is a key point when covering a large area or any HT for that matter, €œnaturalness €, I believe that after having work done, you should be able to continue your normal life.

Whether the outcome is dense or fine you should be able to venture out in any environment and have that natural look, just like the example presented here. ¬b`

 

[Nervousnelly]

I like seeing the different cases because you see such huge variations in the outcomes given the same number of grafts with each patient. This is fine work and still only at 6 months but it demonstrates the limitations with the width and realestate needing coverage. One NW5 does not necessarily have same area to cover as another NW5. In this case he appears to have a larger head and wider scalp which will certainly make density a challenge. He does look much better though. Thanks for the post.

NN

 

[JJ09]

Good point NN, I have often wondered whether someone with a smaller head would be able to achieve better coverage or if their donor area will also have less available grafts due to a smaller head. c;;9

 

[janna]

When a patient has a larger than normal size head, their strip length will be longer than normal. The difference in size of the head does not matter so much as the donor density and laxity. Patients with small size head can have just as sparse donor density as the patients with large heads. This patient should see more improvement in the next 6+ months.

 

[Bigmac]

Looking good at 6 months,he looks so much happier already.