Hair transplantation is a surgical procedure which involves taking skin containing hair follicles from one part of the body called as donor site and placing it to bald parts also known as the recipient site. This procedure is used to treat male pattern baldness which results due to the hormones which lead to falling of the hairs from the follicles in response to hormones.

 

In this procedure grafts containing hair follicles that are resistant to balding are transplanted to bald portions of scalp. This procedure is also used for the treatment of eye lashes, eye brows, beard hair, and scars caused by accidents and surgery like face lift surgery and previous hair transplants. Hair transplantation is a completely different entity when compared to skin grafting. In hair transplantation procedure grafts usually contain almost all of the epidermis and dermis which surrounds the hair follicle. In case of skin transplantation a single strip of skin is taken at once while in case of hair transplantation many tiny grafts are transplanted. Hairs grow in hair follicles which contains groups of 1 to 4 hairs. In hair transplantation these follicular units containing 1-4 hairs are generally taken from the donor site and placed at recipient site. This leads to a natural appearance as complete unit has been transplanted. This recent hair transplant procedure is termed as Follicular Unit Transplantation.

 

Transplant operation is an outpatient procedure. It may include mild sedation and topical anesthesia which is injected locally, and lasts for few hours. The scalp is applied shampoo and then antibiotic solution before applying donor transplant.

In the operation surgeon takes a strip of skin generally from the back of scalp which generally has good hair growth. The resultant wound is closed using the latest technique known as Trichophytic closure which results in much finer scars in the donor area. Later, individual follicular unit grafts are separated from the strip of the skin by dissection under binocular Stereo-microscopes. In this procedure excess fibrous and fatty tissues are removed and efforts are being made to avoid damage to the follicular cells that will be used for grafting. Then micro blades or fine needles are used to puncture the sites for receiving the grafts, after that the grafts are placed in a pattern which closely resembles a realistic hair pattern.

Complications of Hair Transplantation

• Bleeding at both donor and recipient site
• Infection at both donor and recipient site
• Scarring at donor site
• Scarring at recipient sites
• Pigmentation disorder at recipient sites
• Cobblestone appearance at recipient sites
• Failure of graft
• Cyst formation