More and more I'm seeing patients (from H&W) getting sessions north of 7k (someone also just got ~8500) -- and certaintly an even larger # of 5k+ cases from both Hasson and Wong in but a single go around. I can't help but be intrigued by this, as I just don't see such mammoth sessions coming from anywhere else, and total graft count is so clutch; indeed, that is the essential thing which every future breakthrough surrounds be it HM or a drug.

What is the possible reason(s) for this, are there known reasons? Does Hasson do the excising of the donor differently than every other elite doc? Do his techs use special instrumentation or tecnique to get such high graft totals that often far exceed expectations? Are H&W going through a phase were they are "simply" getting patients with inherently superior elasticity?

Incredibly curious.

Thanop,

Good question, I wonder about it too. Perhaps he takes longer scars and sometimes takes them higher up in the sides to produce more grafts.

In order to get more grafts, more tissue has to be taken, so I do not think other docs could not do mega sessions, more they choose not to. It takes a large staff to disect all those and plant, more time in the chair, more money, more elastic scalps.

Most patients may not qualify for such sessions or may not want it for reasons listed. I chose smaller sessions as I had some repair work to address which needed refinemnet each round.

Each case is different and I trust H@W would not be so aggressive if they felt it would be a big risk for the patient. You never here any complaints of scar stretching for example coming from them. The scalp exercises they recommend are good for anyone to do no matter what size session or which doc you go to.

thanatopsis_awry, When Jotronic comes on he can better describe the reasons how H&W give mega-sessions when appropriate. I can tell you first hand they keep a large staff on hand always, but aren't loose cannons on giving huge sessions either. In my case it was recommended I get 2000 grafts even after paying for more and getting a partial refund, so the ethics are definitely present.

True. And just to be clear, I'm in no way implying that they are doing anything even remotely "unethical", or inappropriate, as I'm sure they are a class organization through and through; just genuinely curious.

Getting big numbers seems to be important to the overall result.

Maybe they have continued to refine their techniques and observed they could go farther without any complications.

That the staples hold the scar without stretching back.

That the grafts all grow even when out of body for 15 hours.


Of course its also possible they cut the grafts smaller and get more 1's than other cliincs, but that would not account for all of it.

Im curious too.

thanatopsis_awry, No worries, thana, I didn't even assume anything about your post other than just what you were inquiring about. Written text seems to take on a meaning of its own a lot of times. The Emperor: I agree with you. And what I can say is whatever it is that H&W is doing sure worked on me because in prior HTs the final result was always weak. This time it was a whole different animal!

Dr. Hasson's ability to do ultra large sessions and his high growth yield is what attracted me to visit him for my third hair transplant. Given the results I've achieved, I am very pleased with my decision.

In order to obtain more follicular unit grafts, the physician needs to extract a longer and wider strip. Keep in mind that donor hair density and scalp elasticity play a huge role in the number of grafts that can be obtained.

Some have stated that their ability to obtain a larger number of grafts is due to them cutting smaller grafts than other physicians. This has been greatly debated on our forum elsewhere.

Keep in mind that sessions of 5000-7000+ are NOT common by far, even for Hasson and Wong and it takes amazing characteristics for this to even be possible.

I do believe however, that Hasson and Wong (along with other elite physicians) are continually improving and evolving their techniques as they remain one of the leading hair transplant clinics in the world.

Falc

Sorry I haven't chimed in sooner. I'm still recovering from a rather bad round with a chest cold.

Why can we do these bigger sessions? Emperor touched on it a bit with his post. Indeed, we have refined our techniques to reach these numbers on the right patient and we have found that we can do so without complications. The reason why we even considered going bigger is because the doctors found that one session was simply not enough for the vast majority of patients. The result was either not dense enough and/or did not provide enough coverage. This was identified about nine or ten years ago and ever since then the doctors have, and to this day, look for ways to make the procedure more efficient and to get more hair for the patient (where needed).

While I do think we remove the donor strip differently than other clinics there are a few docs that can get the same size sessions if they were to endeavor to do so. Aside from proper strip removal it also requires a large staff. Both docs have at least 12 full time technicians (the largest of any clinic I know of) and even with such a large staff we are still here sometimes well into the night.

As Falc said, 7000 graft sessions are rare. Cases like this, or like London Lad, are cases where the patient had exceptional donor density and exceptional donor laxity. Our average size session is between 3500 and 4500 grafts per patient and while a fair amount of patients will get 5000 plus in one session we still do many sessions of 2500(ish)or even less. We just tend to put more in one place than other clinics to get the coveted one pass result. Of course, this is not always the case because more than ever patients tend to get hair greed and want to come back for more. The upside to this is that they won't have to come back three or four more times to get what they want as most of the work is done in the first with less usually being done in the second.

Ty for the post, Jotronic, appreciated -- and gl w/ a speedy recovery from the cold!

thana,

Are u looking for an immediate 7000fu follow up session to quickly coincide with your comparably dwarfish 3000 initial attempt?

Alas, that dreaded hair greed beast has claimed another fine young man !!

LOL! 7k session?! On my soon to be hairy noggin!? Let us hope not.