In last few years there is a turn around from
conventional strip surgery to FUE procedure. This is mainly due to advantages
of minimally invasive surgery of FUE as it does not involve stitches and
therefore has practically no pain after procedure, there is no stitch mark
involved, there is freedom to keep short hair style and the recovery is much
faster and post procedure restrictions are minimal compared to the Old strip
procedure. This and few other reasons why there is a sudden 50 to 60% surge in
the demand of this procedure in last 3 years. Many doctors are not trained for
this relatively new but highly sough after procedure. Since FUE is a more
demanding procedure from technical point of view and needs extra training to
master this technique which is in high demand.
Follica
has raised money to begin a human trial of its hair cloning technology.
According to the company’s website, the company has obtained “an
exclusive, worldwide license from the University of Pennsylvania to
develop and commercialise a breakthrough technology that has been
demonstrated to stimulate the genesis and development of new follicles.” It is announced it had completed a $5.5 million Series A financing round.
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Scientists in Berlin have used human adult stem cells to develop hair
follicles using 3 D Biodegradable Scaffold, from which hair then grows naturally. The treatment provides
new hope for people suffering from hair loss.Only a few hair follicles
would need to be taken from the"patient"and used to generate as much new
hair as is needed, which can then be grafted.
check this video:
http://youtu.be/iAS_k1IrJpA
Restoration Robotics, Inc., MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, a medical device company, has on 14th March 2011 announced that they have received 510K clearance from (FDA)
for a ROBOT for harvesting hair follicles from the scalp in men diagnosed with
androgenetic alopecia (male pattern hair loss) with black or brown
straight hair. The name of the Robot for this technology is ARTAS™ System.
ARTAS™ is a physician-controlled, state-of-the-art, interactive,
computer-assisted system that enables harvesting of hair follicles
during hair restoration procedures. It combines several features
including a video image-guided robotic arm, special imaging technologies,
small dermal punches, force sensor, robotic arm,and a computer interface. The ARTAS™ System is
capable of identifying and harvesting individual follicular units to
implement the follicular unit extraction (FUE) technique. The software that runs the instrument helps the surgeon target
follicular units for extraction and also uses stereoscopic video images
to guide the needle mechanism and robotic arm.
The robotic harvesting technique resembles that of
follicular unit extraction ( FUE). The donor area, as in FUE is cropped to
short length to enable the stereo camera system to visualize hair follicles.
The imaging algorithms are capable of identifying follicular unit, determining
their type (1 hair FU, 2 hair FU, 3 hair FU etc.) and calculating the angle,
orientation & location of each follicular unit on the scalp surface. Using
this position & location data,
the imaging system semi autonomously guides the robotic arm & mechanism to
core & extract follicular units one at a time; The punch size is 1mm in ID.
The coring of the follicular units is enabled by a proprietary punch designed
that aims to minimize transaction rate. The system, using a feature called
visual servoing, continuously tracks & adjusts to patient movement so that
harvesting of targeted follicular units is precise. Based on inputs by the
user, the degree of automation can be adjusted, e.g. the system may be
configured to harvest 10-20 grafts sequentially. The harvested follicular unit
may then be automatically transported to a vial where it is kept moist and
cool. It may be possible to achieve harvest speed of up to 1000 grafts in an
hour.
The Benefits
There is growing interest in FUE because of its
many patient benefits, such as less discomfort and a quicker return to
normal activities. The ARTAS™ System solves many of the technical
challenges experienced by physicians currently attempting the FUE
procedure which gives physicians and patients new choice. Rapid healing and lack of a
linear scar, which makes this procedure different from the strip method.
Limitations:
The Robot is approved for only straight back and brown hairs and for those with curly , gray or blond hair may have to wait for some later date.
On a personal communication it was mentioned that the system may harvest up to 1000 grafts in an hour with Transaction rate under 6%.
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Check this research paper: double click the picture to read it in separate view
Add caption
Well we can do up to 60 per sq. cm but we do not recommend it because of significantly reduced survival rate if transplanted over 30 per sq. cm. Check the attached pdf file of the research paper:
For example, if grafts are placed at a density of 50 FU/cm2 but only grow at a density of 40 FU/cm2, the results would still look good to the eye because a density of 40 FU/cm2 looks good. However, in reality this represents a loss of 20 percent of the grafts, which is unacceptable in hair transplantation due to the limited donor supply.
Transplanting in
crown with early hair loss has following drawback in your case at this stage and age of hair
loss;
1. The miniaturized weak existing hairs in this area may not be able to sustain
the surgery and some of them may be lost sometime after this procedure ( shock
loss)
2. The Transplant may be possible between the existing hairs so we can only put
small number of hairs without damaging the existing hairs
3. If you lose more hair in future around the area of transplant you will have
central are of transplanted hair with surrounding halo of no hairs ; this will
not look natural.
4. You can certainly improve the area by use of medications then why you need
surgery?
According to an article published in on line journal Plosone.org Million
Mulugeta, D.V.M., Ph.D., co-director of UCLA’s preclinical stress biology research
program at the University of California, Los Angeles, claim that they have
uncovered a promising hair-loss treatment & may have the potential to
affect hair color, including gray hair..
The experiment wasn’t focused on hair loss. Instead, it was
designed to study a chemical compound that blocks the effects of stress on the
gut.
The research team, during a study of the effect of a compound
called Astressin-B while conducting
stress-hormone experiments on mice that typically develop head-to-tail baldness
as a result of being genetically altered
to overproduce a stress hormone (The mice used in the experiments had been
genetically altered to overproduce a stress hormone called
corticotrophin-releasing factor, or CRF. Corticotropin-releasing factor
over-expressing (CRF -OE)-mice that display phenotypes of Cushing's syndrome
and chronic stress, including alopecia. CRF-OE mice develop bilateral symmetric
hair loss in adulthood). The goal of the experiments was to study the effect of
Astressin-B ((5 µg/mouse) injected
peripherally once a day for 5 days) to determine whether it would block the effects
of stress on the colon but accidental finding was the mice treated with Astressin –B had recovered the full
cover of fur on the back in few weeks compared to the placebo ( injected with
saline) given mice which did not recover. A
sterssin-B induced pigmentation and hair re-growth that was largely
retained for over 4 months (a significant period for average 2 years life of
mouse) when mice were killed Histological examination indicated that alopecic
CRF-OE mice had hair follicle atrophy and that Astressin-B revived the hair follicle from the telogen to anagen phase.
The team repeated the experiment several times and got the same
results — bald mice grew new hair in a few weeks. The researchers also injected
the compound into young mice before they went bald. Those mice never lost their
fur.
The researcher said the compound appears to have affected the
mice skin pigment as well as
spurred hair growth. This could mean
Astressin-B has the potential to
affect hair color and gray hairs. Majority of Pigments were regained by about 1
week and the hair was regained by about 2 weeks
Temporary blockade of the CRF receptors could thus be a
breakthrough therapy for alopecia particularly for patients in acute
(chemotherapy, traumatic stressful events) or chronic stress setting.
Findings of a mouse study may not be applicable to humans, but results
may spur more study of the role stress might play in human hair loss. Hair
growth cycles are very different in mice and humans, so one could draw only
limited conclusions from the research
The research would probably be useful only for hair loss related
to stress, likes that caused by one-time events, rather than as a treatment for
genetic baldness.
Your thought is ingenious but the
scalp transplant would involve very major surgery under general anesthesia with
higher risks. More over it will have circumferential scarring, which may not
look natural.
Well The reason they write not to use on shaved head is if you are
having sensitivity to minoxidil and if you are exposing your shaves head
to sun for long time there may be irritation. Although this is not very
common but if you are having sensitive skin and if you have more sun
exposure you may not apply Minoxidil with shaved head. Shaved head infact makes the application easy and with direct application on long hairs can make your hair stiff and the crusting on the scalp under the hair may not be easy for you to remove.
Same way hair
loss can be due to many reasons some skin conditions with hair loss may
have more skin irritation if Minoxidil is applied and therefore it is
best suited for hair loss such as Androgenetic alopecia ( male pattern
baldness or common baldness) . Because this common baldness has some
link to father or mother side genetically it is written on the information leaflet given with minoxidil that those with no
family history of hair loss may not use it. Since you certainly have a
pattern hair loss it is Ok for you to use it without any problem. In
fact it is the right indication for minoxidil
"Recharging donor" area which is also known as "Donor sealing" even
called "Donor Farming" is not new by concept and some surgeons have even
practiced this in past. The typical indication would be
1. When
surgeon has by poor & aggressive planning over harvested a particular
area of donor scalp and that looks thin compared to other parts of donor
area. The best way to recharge is to take anagen BHT. When well
performed there is no reason why BHT would not grow.
2. When the shock loss has occurred in donor area where hair does not grow back
3.
when patient wants to keep the hair very short and want to avoid
visibility of dotted scars. The transplanted BHT will bring back the
pigments to the donor area and reduce the visibility
4. It may be
useful esp. if someone wants to intentionally over harvest good quality
scalp donor hair for better cosmetic result in the front and therefore
replace donor with BHT instead of using BHT at the front or top.
More over when donor recharging done in the fresh wound immediately after extraction would cause higher chances of BHT growth rather than recharging done in the previous FUE scar with reduced blood supply.
