Greetings,
I recently saw a patient in consultation who had received 3 previous hair transplants from another physician and wanted to be evaluated for an additional procedure from me.
On examination of his donor area I was surprised to find 3 separate strip scars. One for each procedure, stacked on top of each other. The effect was significant scarring in the donor area and an inability to harvest another strip scar secondary to the extensive scarring from the previous procedures.
For reference I have also attached a photo of one of my patient’s who had 2 strip procedures, but only one scar. This is because whenever I go back for additional procedures on a patient, I always attempt to harvest the new strip to include the old strip scar. In essence instead of creating train track multiple stacked scars, I keep the scar as a singular scar, thus minimizing the overall scarring to the donor region. In addition, I also performed a trichophytic closure in my patient, which allows the hair to grow through the scar, thus further concealing the scar.
It is imperative to treat the donor region with as much care as the recipient region. Donor hair is finite, and proper care and attention must be given to ensure that we can minimize donor scarring and maximize donor harvesting over the patient’s lifetime.
All the best,
Marc Dauer, M.D.
This is a photo of a patient who had multiple strip hair transplant procedures.
Hair transplant strip scar with trichophytic closure.