Hi,

This patient travelled a great distance to get a fue session with Dr. Ron Shapiro. It was important to him to get a natural hairline but FUE method he can have the option to shave his head in the future if he so desired.

This 30+yr old patient scheduled himself to be in Minnesota for a week so he could recuperate and get rechecked at SMG couple times before his long journey back home. A two day session was scheduled but at the end of session #2, we kept the next day open for possible touch up (which we did). The total graft count - 1883 = 3390 hairs.

Hair and Graft Count -

1's - 627

2's - 925

3's - 324

4's - 7

We look forward to his regular updates -

Looks great . His postop pics show little signs of surgery.
I believe minimal trauma is a major key in the success of both procedures .

Sweet Jesus.....outstanding/astounding "recovery"! Agree w/ PGP -- minimally invasive and miniamlly traumatic...doesn't get any better than this!

How did the patient manage to keep the recipient site so clean only 4 days post-op, do you expect scabs to form, or did that already happen?

Do all your patients have this clean of results post-op?

It looks great, obviously!

Thanks guys.

When patients have their head shaved post op it's really easy to see the recipient site - as in this situation. With our incisions being truly custom fit for each size grafts and we make sure our grafts are very well trimmed so it barely looks like our patients had any work done.

The scabs are basically dried up tissue but our grafts are so trimmed that there isn't much scabbing to speak of. He will contend with just a little bit of scabbing but not much in few more days.

Janna,

It's great to see you presenting more of Dr. Shapiro's FUE work. Since FUE has historically been considered less consistent than the strip procedure over the years, it will be interesting to see more of his FUE results as they grow out. After reading an article he wrote on FUE, I can see Dr. Shapiro

Recently, I read a well written summary of the FUE procedure, its advantages, and it's disadvantages by Dr. Ron Shapiro. Today, I published it on our highly popular Hair Loss Q&A Blog. Considering that FUE has been overhyped by certain clinics and underestimated by others, reading this well balanced article was extremely refreshing. I'd encourage anyone interested in FUE to read "The Evolution, Advantages, and Disavantages of Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) Hair Transplant Surgery".

Best wishes,

Bill (Falc)

Dr. Ron Shapiro's write up is the most comprehensive and well presented explanation of FUE I've read to date. All potential FUE patients shoud take a few minutes to read it.

http://www.regrowhair.com/hair...-transplant-surgery/

-Dr. F

quote:

Originally posted by stilldeciding:
How did the patient manage to keep the recipient site so clean only 4 days post-op, do you expect scabs to form, or did that already happen?

Do all your patients have this clean of results post-op?

It looks great, obviously!

Yes, pretty much. Some patients have the redness disappear faster than others. I want to show on this patient his donor site at one day post-op/second day procedure. He had more than half (1026) grafts extracted the first day and we took close to 700 grafts the second day. The pic on the left is at the end of the day of second day. He left our clinic being very clean each day so when came in the morning following his procedures, we just sprayed it with saline a bit more. Not much cleaning was required so patient just did his usual shampooing as stated in his post op instructions sheet. The comparison at 4 day postop is remarkable at how fast his hairs grow and how quickly the redness disappears.

Janna,

Great job as always with Dr. Shapiro. How many FUEs can be extracted for use in the frontal third? What is th maximum that is safe? I would want about 3k grafts cos I would be greedy and have the donor supply available. is that realistic? I have darkish curly hair and a lot of it just not in the frontal third although there is a tuft and no one thinks I am losing it but I know how to cover well? And can you still extract more if it is needed later on? I am 52 and have plenty of hair and am a Norwood 2a/3 probably...many thanks.

Hello everyone. Well, I'm the guy in the pictures that Janna has posted and I'm so pleased with the result that words can't even describe how I feel.

In saying that, I do understand that it is early days yet and I still have a long way to go.

To add to what Janna said about the recepient and donor sites being so clean, I followed the post op instructions to the "T". i.e. I literally applied Graftcyte every 1/2 an hour and applied an icepack to my forehand once an hour. I also eat healthy, drink lots of water, don't smoke and didn't drink alcohol prior/during surgery.

Please feel free to ask any questions about my experience with SMG.

Thanks,
Cameron.

Congrats as the work looks exceptional.
Can I ask how far away you came from.

quote:

Originally posted by PLEASE GROW PLEASE:
Congrats as the work looks exceptional.
Can I ask how far away you came from.

Sure, I am from New Zealand.

Wow if he doesn't have any redness once all the hairs fall out, then he has it so easy for the waiting period!

Janna,

I know I asked this question in another thread but can't find where. Sorry! Do the Shapiro's use the same FUE Extraction Tool that Dr. Feller uses? Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by hairraising:
Janna,

Great job as always with Dr. Shapiro. How many FUEs can be extracted for use in the frontal third? What is th maximum that is safe? I would want about 3k grafts cos I would be greedy and have the donor supply available. is that realistic? I have darkish curly hair and a lot of it just not in the frontal third although there is a tuft and no one thinks I am losing it but I know how to cover well? And can you still extract more if it is needed later on? I am 52 and have plenty of hair and am a Norwood 2a/3 probably...many thanks.

Hi Hairraising-- depending on your level of loss and at 52 there is a possibility of being more aggressive with the amount of grafts and placement--we would need to see some pics before making the assessment.

3000 would be about the max we would want to take, if you have plentiful donor at least 85 fu's or greater, take a step back and then assess the impact on the donor.

Preferably, we would do 2000-2500 max over the course of a 3 day session, let it grow out, bring you back for the additional grafts, if you even need them.

Generally speaking, taking 2500 grafts would leave some grafts left for the future---unfortunately there is simply no real way to measure the impact or future grafts once we start getting to 3000-4000 grafts--- We believe that for most patients 3-4 might be the max ---- after we see your pics we can give you a more representative answer.

Good to see you posting over here Cameron--hope flight back goes well and look forward to following your progress!

Jason

Hi Rachmunas4life,

You asked me the question on Dr. Paul's fue hairline thread. Here's my reply -

We are easing into using Dr. Feller's FUE tool. Since we've performed majority of our FUE sessions the traditional way, we've come accustomed to the old method and it's always tough to switch to new instrumentations. I'm sure we'll use Dr. Feller's punch more as we become adapt and more comfortable with it.

Thanks for your inquiry.

Hairraising,

It's best to send in your pics and get a thorough consultation. What you may want and what our doctors think best may be slightly different. You can send pics to matt@shapiromedical or info@shapiromedical. Thanks for your interest.

quote:

Dr. Ron Shapiro's write up is the most comprehensive and well presented explanation of FUE I've read to date.

i agree!! nice write up... now if only we could start seeing with our eyes that SMGs FUE is growing out with consistant proven nice results and good yield in the end... but apparently their FUE patients dont wanna share publicly...
hopefully this guy is different, but hopefully SMG can post a few more of the FUE results they have been doing for the last 7 months or so up soon...i have to agree tho, the work at this stage looks very clean

Janna,

I read that part of the post-op process is applying GraftCyte every 1/2 hour, do you feel Folligen would work just as well, or does it not compare with GraftCyte.

I have loads of Folligen in my cupboard.

Janna/Jason, Thanks for the replies. 3-4k using FUE would be a maximum...that I understand based on having to take them out from all over the donor area. But let's just say that is all I need for the frontal third for now and say at a later date I need more, then I assume a strip can be done? Is that correct. I don't think at my age I will be losing much more than I have other than from the front tuft so can be more aggressive. I like FUE due to the lack of a scar. What si the percentage of FUE that can eb expected to survive the procedure? I will email some photos in.

One other question...for the frontal third in a person with no hair loss, what is the average number of hairs and grafts that exist naturally? I know it vaires based on thickness density etc but on average what is it?

Hairraising,

Yes, you can opt to have a strip procedure in the future after fue sessions.

We can't state what the survival percentage is at this point. We need to see a lot more results, and I can't speak for other clinics who have been producing results via fue as I'm sure it varies depending on the clinic.

We feel we take as much risk factors out of the equation so we're hopeful that the survival rate for our fue sessions are the same as strip...time will tell.

As for your natural avg density question - there really hasn't been much studies done. I believe Dr. Cole did studies on donor densities, which varies anywhere from 70-100+ and center donor region is usually more dense compared to the sides. More recently Dr. Sharon Keene has been doing extensive studies on front and top natural densities. Dr. Ron says Dr. Keene is finding it lower than what people might expect - 70 to 90 fu per cm2 with central core being more dense, and it gets less dense towards hairline and temples. Dr. Keene or her clinic might be able to better answer this question.