Cargando…

Follicular Unit Excision in Patients of African Descent: A Skin-Responsive Technique

BACKGROUND: Follicular unit excision is a favored minimally invasive hair transplantation method. However, it is suboptimal for many patients of African descent because of wide variations in hair and skin characteristics. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of a skin-responsive follicular unit ex...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Umar, Sanusi, Khanna, Raveena, Lohlun, Boudin, Maldonado, Juan Carlos, Zollinger, Maria, Osei-Tutu, Achiamah, Gonzales, Alejandro, Chouhan, Kavish, Nusbaum, Aron
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10521773/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37530735
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/DSS.0000000000003881
Descripción
Sumario:BACKGROUND: Follicular unit excision is a favored minimally invasive hair transplantation method. However, it is suboptimal for many patients of African descent because of wide variations in hair and skin characteristics. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of a skin-responsive follicular unit excision device, which accommodates hair curliness, skin thickness, and firmness in patients of African descent. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors retrospectively evaluated patients who underwent scalp follicular unit (FU) excision using a skin-responsive technique at 7 multinational clinics. The preoperative donor grading for the anticipated difficulty used a scale with Class V indicating the highest degree of hair curliness, skin thickness, and firmness. RESULTS: Of 64 eligible patients (45 males and 19 females), 28 had Class V FU excision donor grades. The mean transection rate for all patients was 3%–6%, which was highest in class V patients. Skin thickness and firmness had a greater effect on the maximum transection rate than hair curliness. Only 19 or 18 G punches were used. CONCLUSION: The authors report consistence success of a new skin-responsive FU excision device for all patients of African descent with a mean graft transection rate of less than 10%. The findings support skin thickness and firmness as major influencers of graft attrition rate.