Donor Strip Super-Megasession
(With more than 3000 follicle units per session)
Modern hair surgery has developed enormously in the course of the last few years. Redistribution of over 3000 so-called follicular units (natural groupings of one to three hairs) in a single session is still considered as the state of the art, the best choice according to current scientific knowledge.
However, this method is no longer available in our clinic, being replaced by the more modern minimally-invasive Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) method.
During the first phase of the Donor Strip Super-Megasession,
a strip of skin about 1,5 cm wide and up to 30 cm in length, is removed surgically from the back of the head, the donor area. This procedure takes place under local anaesthesia and is completely painless. In this densely haired strip of skin, the hair follicles are not distributed equally but grow in small groups of 1 up to 3 hairs, the follicle units.
The donor site is then very carefully sutured with a fine thread. Generally, in the end a small scar remains that will be fully covered by other hairs from the donor area. In closing the wound a special suture method (named trichophytic closure) is used, that enables a number of hairs to grow through the scar later on. In time the scar becomes even more inconspicuous and even allows wearing a shorter haircut. Despite this, a permanent scar is unavoidable with this method. The patient should expect some numbness at the back of the head that fades slowly in the course of 6 to 12 months. Most patients experienced no inconvenience from this numbness.
During the second phase the harvested strip of skin is prepared with the aid of stereomicroscopes, singling out 2500 to 4000 small grafts, each containing a follicular unit with 1, 2 or 3 hairs. This microsurgical preparation is very labor intensive and is carried out by a team of 4 to 6 highly specialized technical assistants under
Dr. Heitmann's direction. Up to 1200 Follicular Unit Grafts containing a single hair are transplanted. When distributed and implanted with skill in the newly created hairline, the result is entirely natural and indistinguishable from a normal dense hairline.
The third phase, that of inserting the follicular unit grafts, also takes place under local anaesthesia. Initially Dr. Heitmann uses microsurgical instruments to make minute recipient sites in the areas that have become bald. After this, a team of 2 to 3 technical assistants then insert the follicular unit grafts with great care and precision.
The recipient sites are extremely small incisions whose surface area is scarcely measurable. The length and depth of these incisions are exactly large enough so that the Follicular Unit Grafts that have been extracted fit in exactly.
The use of very tiny instruments completely avoids visible scars and keeps potential temporary lack of blood supply of the scalp to an absolute minimum. This way we regularly succeed in achieving hair densities of up to 70 follicular units per cm² in a single session, which is known as Dense Packing.
It is obviously not feasible for all of the scalp, but is especially used in the frontal area behind the hairline.
This One-Pass-Result means that a second procedure to make the hair even denser is then usually not necessary.
The angle of each incision must however follow the direction in which the original hair grew. Even in bald areas this can be identified by the remaining short downy hairs.
The transplantation of Follicular Unit Grafts in a Donor Strip Super-Megasession procedure requires extraordinary technical and artistic skills. (also see under hairline design). The talent and experience of the doctor carrying out the procedure plays an essential role.
This practical explanation also provides an idea how time and labor-intensive the Donor Strip Super-Megasession is. Transplanting 3000 Follicular Unit Grafts or more can sometimes take more than 8 or 9 hours.
Size of the hair transplantation and expected density
The number of grafts and the final result in terms of coverage and density are dependent on two factors. On one hand it is dependent on the surface size of the recipient site, and on the other hand on the properties of the donor hairs, such as density of the donor area, diameter of the hair shafts, hair color, etc.
Sometimes more than one session is needed to achieve the desired result.
The following points should be completely clear to anyone undergoing a hair transplant procedure: the number of donor hairs in the area back of the head are not endless,
but limited. It is therefore important to distribute the donor hairs very efficiently - densely in the most visible areas, and to a lesser extent in others. Ideally, in the final result an illusion is produced of more hair than there actually is. Hair surgery is not wizardry, and a teenager's full head of up to 100.000 hairs remains impossible to achieve.
An important prerequisite for your satisfaction with the results of your hair transplant are realistic expectations regarding attainable density and the size of the surface area that can be adequately covered in the end.
What needs to be taken into account before the treatment?
What should you expect after the treatment?
What needs to be taken into account after the treatment?What needs to be taken into account after the treatment?
