Scar age and yield of FUE

[Hedgehog]

This is a question to all, but it would be nice if physicians that perform FUE into scars can give their view on the matter.

I would like to know regarding putting grafts in a scar if the age of the scar affects the yield?
Is there a consensus on wheter or not grafts grow better in a new or old scar?

 

[Hattingen Hair]

Hi Hedgehog,

The age of the scar within reason is not the issue, as long as the skin and fibrosis has completed the healing process then grafts can be placed into the area. What is more important is the composition of the scar itself, the depth of the fibrosis for example.

Ideally the grafts need to be as robust as possible, being surrounded by a decent amount of fatty tissue to help the healing, achieve a good yield and long term survival of the graft.

 

[sl]

Great reply from Hattingen and would say we as a clinic work on old and newer scars and as rightly said the composition is the issue and how to place, density placed etc is key to obtaining good growth.

A first low density pass often primes the scar for more to be added later as the vascularity increases and often the patient reports this that they have a warmer sensation in the scar tissue and often a colour change and this I have seen in patients also visibly.

 

[Hedgehog]

I thought older scars are more white than newer ones and made the assumption that the pink color of new scars (around 1 year old) would indicate more vascularity and thus result in a higher yield with FUE grafting. But that does not seems to be true. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[Hattingen Hair]

Hi Hedgehog,

If you are talking about a previous strip scar, ideally you should wait about 12 months before thinking of adding hair into it, although cosmetically the area may have relaxed internally the skin is still healing, and to gain the best yield it is better to wait, and as SL said start with maybe slightly lower density, say around 30 FUcm2, then build from there if required.

 

[Hedgehog]

Well my scar is several years old. I am researching how to improve it and am looking into revision and FUE.
So if the age of the scar would be a factor for FUE, I could take that into account.
I now know it's not. Only if I would consider a scar revision, then I should wait 12 months to start FUE. Thanks a lot.

 

[Westcoaster]

What size scar do you have? Have you areas of Hairloss you're looking to address in the future? If yes then this may be a deciding factor on a revision or Fue.
There's also the option of SMP into the scar.

 

[Bigmac]

As the others have said, planting into scar tissue should be at a lower density to see how the grafts take, if you get good yield, then add more.

 

[Hedgehog]

Westcoaster,

You read more about my scar issue here: http://www.hairlossexperiences.com/view_topic.php?id=3773&forum_id=2