Donor Scar After FUT- Strip Harvest Hair Transplant Procedure
Greetings,
Today I would like to discuss the closure of the hair transplant donor strip in FUT, which is the strip harvest procedure. This is where we take a strip of hair from the donor zone and dissect it into individual follicular units for transplanting. In order to have an excellent result in the donor region (a fine linear donor scar, between 1-3mm in width) it is imperative to limit the width of the donor strip. Keeping the donor strip limited to a width of 10-15mm is usually safe for a fine scar result. Performing a trichophytic closure (which I have discussed in previous blog entries) can cause the hair to grow through the scar, further camouflaging it. Some physicians prefer to close the door region using staples. This technique is much quicker and easier for the physician. It is also much more uncomfortable for the patient. Sleeping on hard staples in the back of your scalp can be very painful. Staples are also painful to remove. I prefer to use a fine nylon suture which takes longer to place, but is much more comfortable to sleep on and is painless in it’s removal. I also believe that the healing with sutures is better than with staples. I typically have my patients leave their sutures in for 12-14 days before removing them. In hair transplantation there are always many different ways that each step of the process can be performed. It is imperative that the treating physician make decisions that are best for the patient in both the short term and long term.
All the best,
Marc Dauer, MD
Comments are closed.