Dr. Bernardino Arocha, M.D. and his experienced staff have performed ultra refined follicular unit hair transplantation exclusively for the past few years. They regularly perform surgeries exceeding 3,000 FU grafts per session, with their largest session to date being 6,000 grafts. Dr. Arocha is a Diplomat of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery and has performed over 2,000 hair transplant surgeries.

I welcome all input and comments from forum members regarding his potential recommendation on the Hair Transplant Network. Given Dr. Arocha's extensive experience and his ultra refined techniques, I believe that once he garners sufficient positive feedback on this forum from actual patients he should be considered for membership in the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians. To view the membership standards for the Coalition, click here .

I asked Dr. Arocha to share photos of both his patient results and his surgery. He and his lead medical tech, Craig, have provided this community with numerous photos to demonstrate their ultra refined follicular unit procedure and its impressive results.

View some of their patient photos below:


4032 Follicular Unit Graft ultra refined session

4,000 plus follicular units in two sessions

7 months after 3,000 plus grafts in one session

Hair restoration into area scarred by burns

Before and after photos for several different patients


Surgery Photos:

Graft preparation

http://hair-restoration-info.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2566060861/m/3161057353 Incision and graft placement

Donor closure and pencil thin scar photos


View additional patient photos on Dr. Arocha's website.

Thanks for everyones input.

Best regards, Pat – the publisher of the Hair Transplant Network and the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center

Pat,

I've been impressed with the hair transplant patient and surgical photos Dr. Arocha has posted. It does seem that he does ultra refined work and has the ability to perform hair transplant megasessions when appropriate for the hair transplant patient.

I personally believe he is recommendation criteria. And with enough patient feedback, he may certainly be Coalition material in the future.

Bill (Falc)

I checked out the photos presented and realized that most are also highlighted on his website. In good faith I could not recommend him based on what I have seen due to:

-only one case showing immediate post op photos and they are poor quality
-same photos as website therefore assume these are "showcase" patients


I guess this is a case where I would just have to go with your judgement.

I would second NN better quality pictures and more examples of pts are needed.

I think dr Aroucha may indeed be a quality surgeon but you just can't tell looking at the few pics on his website.
The lighting is poor and some pictures are blurry. Its very difficult for members of this forum to assess his work.
If you look at say hasson and wongs website you can plainly see the fantastic results they produce.

Like i say, dr arocha may well be a quality surgeon and hopefully better picture quality in the future will testify to this.

Here is another photo album for your review.

2014 follicular unit grafts in one session

Some of the photos are a little blurry, but there are a greater number of photos and many of them are better quality.

Falc

Dr. Arocha has posted another photo album for your review.

This patient received 3628 follicular unit grafts in a single hair transplant session over a large norwood 7 balding area. This patient opted for coverage over density. Click here to view this album and offer your feedback.

Best wishes,

Falc

The quality of photos just posted are a huge improvement.

The results of the norwood 7 patient in particular are very impressive. A huge transformation in one pass and very natural looking as well.

In response to requests from this community for more photos demonstrating he and his staffs capability to perform larger ultra refined sessions Dr. Arocha has posted another impressive patient photo album, click here to view.

This 36 year old patient used Propecia to stabilize his hair loss and minimize any potential shock hair loss from surgery and received one mega session of 4900 FU:

one hair FU 588
two hair FU 1960
three hair FU 1813
four hair FU 343
five hair FU 196

Thanks for everyones input.

I think the photos that Dr. Arocha has provided are not only impressive but show his willingness to be responsive to this patient based community.

Given his credentials, technique and results I think he has earned the privilege of being recommended on the Hair Transplant Network Hair Transplant Network.

To view his profile/recommendation, click here.

I hope and expect that Dr. Arocha will continue to share his work with this community.

Best regards, Pat

Pat,

With no disrespect I am trying to keep an open mind, but I have to agree with some of the other posters on this and other threads that more photos should have been provided.

I agree with you that the results are impressive looking, but the photos still are not what should be the caliber to display ones technique. There are no immediate post op photos and one of the hairline from the side is very blurry and the scar photo also is not up to snuff.

I am puzzled why lately it does seem like sub par photos are being acceptable? I do trust your opinion if you have been to clinics and seen operations and met with patients, but based on some of the pics given I have to question things and I would worry about forum credibility. We always talk about comparing apples to apples. Look at what Dr. Feller and H@W provide versus some of the latest photos from possible recommended docs. No comparison.

NN,

We are recommending Dr. Arocha as a surgeon - not a photographer.

Dr. Arocha has already spent considerable time and effort presenting numerous photos on this forum. Then when he was asked for more, he provided even more.

Given all that I've learned about him over the past few months, I'm confident in his work - if not his photography.

Congratulations to Dr. Arocha and welcome to the Hair Transplant Network.

I feel confident in his abilities from what I have heard and seen.

NN,

One of my goals in 2008 is to work with our recommended physicians to help them take better photos. But I agree with Pat, that as a surgeon, I have confidence in his abilities.

Falc

I honestly don't know enough about Dr. Arocha to pass judgement one way or another.

*BUT*

..."We are recommending Dr. Arocha as a surgeon-not a photographer". --Pat-publisher of this community.

That statement is a complete disanalogy and pretty patronizing if you ask me. That would be like a jury telling the judge they need more *EVIDENCE* before passing judgement on a defendant because there simply is not enough evidence and what has been presented is both unclear and inconsistent and the judge turning to the jury and saying:

"we are trying to determine if the defendant is guilty or not guilty--NOT determining if he is a good story teller...Defendant you are not guilty. I believe you".


I don't want Dr.A to become a skilled photographer *BUT* I want some detailed evidence that he is a skilled ht surgeon. Without good *PICTURES* then precisely how can we (the forum of the forum BASED community) tell?

I don't know if Dr.A is a good doc or not. Maybe you have visited his clinic many times (would like to know if you have and did you take your camera?) and maybe his addition to this community will serve as a betterment to the balding community.

I just don't like the responses Im hearing. These "doctors" don't know how to take photographs? You guys are kidding me right? Here: by a light bulb and a camera. Point and shoot. Pretty simple stuff. Im sure they can afford a good camera (about $500) with what they charge for hts.

Are these four patients the only *EVIDENCE* we have of this doc? Are there more somewhere that maybe I missed? What precisely are the qualifications for being recommended apart from performing "ultra refined..." I mean, don't they have to provide 'x' amount of good patients photos? Like say at least 20-30 different patients that have consistent, proven, results? Or can they just send in 3-4 patients that they did well on over the years?...

is this still a forum BASED community?

please advise...

ng2gb,

This is a patient based forum community and every member is entitled to give their opinion and has a voice.

But the "final" say of whether or not a clinic is recommended comes from Pat and myself. Before my time, it was just Pat.

All member opinions however, are always considered.

But there are plenty of photos that show the quality of his work regarldess of his photography skills. The links to his photo albums are provided above.

Falc

so is it just those 4-5 or so patients that this was based upon? Because that is all of the photos Im seeing...

NG2GB,

You are obviously not reading this thread thoroughly.

Pat provided 5 patient photos album links initially in the first post on this thread.

There are also 3 surgical photo album links above.

In addition, I linked to two additional photo albums (see above).

That would be a total of 10.

What you have to understand is that is that Pat and I do not base recommendations strictly upon photographs provided.

Pat and I do extensive research and consult with these physicians getting to know their technique and level of skill thoroughly which also plays a major factor in determining their potential recommendation.

Pat and I don't even bring the consideration for recommendation to the table until we have a good feeling that they are potential recommendation material.

I hope this helps clarify.

Falc

Pat you know more about this industry than I do and most, if not all other members. I trusted your judgement with Shapiro as well as my research. You have access to meeting these docs and are obviously very knowledgeable. If you want these docs as recommended physicians than just do so. Don't try to make it out as a diplomatic process. It isn't and that is OK. I am very appreciative of what you have accomplished with this site and done for me personally., but don't insult us. I for one vote to eliminate the pseudo voting into coalition or recommended list and just trust Pat's judgement.

NervousNelly,

I know that your comment is motivated by your genuine interest in preserving the integrity of this community. We share this value, even if we may have a difference of opinions regarding a particular physician.

One of the reasons I ask for input and send this request to thousands of subscribers is to gather input from actual patients. I'm interested in hearing from people who have had actual experiences with physicians to both add and remove physicians from this community.

Unfortunately no actual patients have come forward to post regarding Dr. Arocha.

The process of adding and subtracting physicians has been very heavily influenced by actual patient input.

This past year I've removed as many physicians as I've added.

I take all input from patients and form members seriously. But I reserve the right to make the final call.

Democracies do not always achieve 100% consensus and neither does this community.

If Dr. Arocha, or any physician, fails to meet the standards of this community he will be removed so promptly that most will not even know it happened.

It's taken ten years to build this community and its time test recommendations. The last thing I would do is jeopardize the good reputation of this community.

I will continue to ask for input from all members of this forum regarding any potential new physicians. We may not always agree. But I think keeping this process open and transparent is critical.


Best regards, Pat

that sounds very reasonable and logical to me. I honestly did not know the exact protocol for receiving coalition status and to be perfectly honest I just found it some what alarming that recently I have noticed quite a few new "recommendations" lately.

What I do know is that I had absolutely NO idea how far hair transplant surgery had progressed and what was now capable until I found this forum. I had researched hts off and on for a few years. Prior to finding this forum I had chalked hts up for those who were happy with a thin, whispy comb over barely covering the top of their heads. The only webpage I found showing real thick appearing hair with low hair lines was the Fleming/Mayer flap from Beverly Hills. That turned out to be barbaric...Then I found the "bald truth" website by Spencer Korbin. His recommended surgeons are a far cry from H&W, Feller and others I eventually only found on this site.

This site was the first and only to show me what can really be expected from world class surgeons. Indeed, you are doing an excellent job with this forum Pat. Kudos.

Also, in all honesty, since we were discussing the lack of high resolution pics and enthusiasm by docs to upgrade their websites I simply have to wonder: do they know how much business their losing by this? I mean this is a HUGE money making industry. It just seems rather odd that I had to do so much research and basically dig to find this forum and these world class docs. Its almost as if these world class docs were a secret. What gives? Are these top notch docs in such great demand and booked out for months that they are not worried about gaining more publicity and making more moolah? It is a business...I think that is one of the biggest reasons Armani has been so successful (marketing strategies) for the betterment or detriment of his patients.

just my two 'n a half cents...