FUE hair transplant surgery is getting more and more popular and in this video I shot at Shapiro Medical in Minneapolis, Minnesota you finally get to see how Shapiro Medical performs FUE hair transplant surgery. I originally shot this video in late February, 2016 and am only now uploading a final edit for your review, nearly ten months later. What is interesting to me is that when I was shooting this FUE hair transplant surgery documentary of Shapiro Medical they had been using the WAW FUE system developed by Dr. Jean Devroye for about six months and they were using one of only six prototypes in existence. Since I shot this FUE hair transplant surgery video they have helped to refine the system further to where they are now using the WAW system for 90% to 95% of all of their procedures. It is rare that they use another system for an FUE hair transplant surgery but when I spoke to Dr. Josephitis about this recently he told me that he still tries to use the other systems when he can just to keep his skills sharp and his experience up to date.
The video above shows some interesting information that I think many of you will find useful. What I have learned about this new motorized punch for FUE hair transplant surgery is that the punch can go deeper than sharp punches without causing damage. That is one of the challenges with a sharp punch in that the deeper the punch goes the higher the probability that the punch will destroy the follicle due to transection. Typically, a sharp punch will go no deeper than 4mm. It is theorized that during FUE hair transplant surgery a sharp punch should go no deeper than 4mm because if a graft is transected at this depth it still has a chance of growing when transplanted to the recipient zone, or regrowing in the donor zone if left alone. The challenge with more shallow scoring during FUE hair transplant surgery is that the arrector pili muscle is not severed so more traction is necessary to pop the graft out. If the doctor (or technician) isn't experienced and talented at this aspect of FUE hair transplant surgery then poor growth will be the result for the patient nine to twelve months later. As it was explained in a previous hair transplant documentary video I produced with Dr. Ron Shapiro, this system is much more forgiving to the operator. It makes inexperienced users better, and better users great (or words to that effect). Blunt punches like that in the Harris SAFE System and the WAW flat trumpet punch have a lower potential for transection because it is more difficult for them to transect follicles. This means they can go deeper into the tissue safely and by doing so the arrector pili muscle is cut and the follicle is released. You'll see the result of this in this new FUE hair transplant video as the graft rises up out of the tissue with no assistance. This makes it easier for a doctor or technician to extract the graft with less overall traction and a lower potential for damage.
You'll also hear Dr. Shapiro discussing Liposomal ATP, which they use during and after FUE hair transplant surgery. It is used to help the grafts maintain viability during the procedure and afterwards as the patients are given a spray bottle of Liposomal ATP to apply to their grafts for the first couple of days after their FUE hair transplant surgery. When grafts are scored and extracted they are separated from their blood supply which carries not only oxygen to the follicle but also the nutrients necessary for ATP. This is necessary so that the cells of the follicle can continue to maintain their various processes that they normally undergo. This includes general metabolism maintenance, cell division, protein and membrane synthesis, etc. It is just one of the improvements made to FUE hair transplant surgery in the past couple of years. Various clinics have reported an increase in patients that experience little to no shedding after their FUE hair transplant surgery and even much earlier growth for those that do have a postoperative shed.
It was also interesting to see how Shapiro Medical deals with the grafts during an FUE hair transplant surgery. They place each graft into their respective petri dishes based on not only the number of hairs in each graft but also the time that they were extracted. They have devised a simple but efficient "first out, first in" protocol that means the first grafts extracted are the first grafts placed back into the scalp. This helps to reduce the out of body time to a minimum for every FUE hair transplant surgery being performed at Shapiro Medical Group.
Finally, there was an excellent view of how fast the extractions heal after an FUE hair transplant surgery with Shapiro Medical. The patient in this video actually had his grafts extracted over the course of two days so at the end of the video you can see the extraction sites from one day and then the fresher extraction sites created right before the clip was shot. The difference on the same scalp is powerful and shows just how fast FUE hair transplant surgery patients heal which is in huge contrast to traditional follicular unit strip surgery. We all knew this to begin with but it is still impressive to see how fast good FUE hair transplant surgery heals when proper punches are being used.
This marks the end of the surgical portion of the hair transplant documentary series featuring Shapiro Medical Group. There are more videos to come, however, so subscribe to my Youtube Channel and stay tuned!
