I checked out Dr Koray`s views on this. His has information on his website which I am posting below.
Micro-motors vs. manual removal
Take your time and stay safe: refuse to any micro-motor!
It has gotten increasingly popular at many clinics practicing surgical hair restoration to save time and make use of auxiliary techniques in order to harvest a bigger amount of grafts within a shorter period of time. Motorized hollow needles to extract follicular units around the donor area have been invented for FUE-procedures in order to save time for the surgical doctor and his medical team as well as for the patient. By using so-called micro-motors it has become possible to extract significantly more grafts during one single procedure than there will be harvested by the manual but skillful method. As micro-motors no longer need the personal skill and craftsmanship of a hair surgeon a growing number of clinics started to provide the most effective FUE-method without actually having experience or recording a reasonable number of patients for hair transplant on FUE. Since the manual extraction of single grafts proves to be quite tedious and strenuous, some clinics use the much easier way of micro-motors, spare time and money and eventually offer less expensive rates to the patients by saving labor costs. Be aware that considerably low rates for FUE-hair transplants, which are below the common price range, may indicate the use of micro-motors.
Leading FUE hair surgeons extract manually Quality restrictions through micro-motors
The world s most respected hair surgeons on the latest hair restoration technique, such as Dr. Ray Woods (the inventor of FUE) or Dr. John P. Cole, still remove follicular units manually and expressly disclaim the use of motorized hollow needles for the FUE-procedure. Dr. Koray Erdogan himself as a representative of the FUE-method exclusively works manually without the use of micro-motors by removing follicular units. To him and the rest of the leading hair transplant surgeons any use of micro-motors may have significant impact on the growing yield and the final outcome of the hair transplant if individual hair follicles are not taken properly. This may happen due to a high extracting rate during which the motorized hollow needle cannot regularly be adjusted properly to the angle of each hair growing in the donor zone. The Transection Rate as an indicator for the number of destroyed hair follicles during the removal-process will reflect an increasing yield and have a significantly bad impact on the quality of each individual hair transplant. Furthermore swift rotation and less sensitive movement of the micro-motor may cause traumatized hair follicles. This happens regularly to patients with sensitive follicular units. Eventually there is a risk for transected hair follicles, which are not extracted perfectly, to be pressed back into the scalp by the micro-motorized needle and thus lead to suppurative infection of the skin.
Dr. Koray Erdogan is performing FUE manually since 2005 and has optimized his skills over the years. For years of experience it turned out to be evident that follicular units being extracted during the FUE-procedure will only survive when being relocated to the scalp quickly. By the use of micro-motors a large number of grafts is being extracted which often significantly rises higher than 1000 follicular units during a single day session. After the removal each hair follicle is being prepared until it can be inserted to the recipient area. This period of time is maximized since a high number of grafts will be extracted and prepared for the transition. As for follicular units remaining outside the human ´s body and being separated from any supply the risk of dying will rise with every hour a graft is not re-implanted to the patient ´s scalp. As a matter of fact the growing yield will reflect the consequences of this maximum extraction rate by turning into a bad result. According to Dr. Koray ´s experience and in order for a successful process a maximum rate of 1000 to 1250 grafts per day will be the ultimate ratio of grafts being extracted and inserted.
Every use of motorized hollow needles ultimately leads to a higher and faster removal of follicular units. Due to this fact the individual costs will be lower and the surgical clinic will achieve more revenue. For instance, a number of 2500 grafts provided for a single rate of 1.50 ¬ each will turn to 3,750 ¬ sales a day. By manual extraction the price will be at least 2 ¬ a day. As there is a maximum of 1000 grafts being extracted per day manually the clinics sale will only reach 2000 ¬.
Dr. Koray Erdogan rejects any use of micro-motors for the reasons of higher quality and the best possible outcome.
