Greetings,
Today I will discuss microscopic dissection in Hair Transplant procedures. Since the advent of Follicular Unit Hair Transplantation there are many different ways that physicians employ their staff to dissect the donor strip into individual follicular units in the process of hair transplant procedures, that is the groupings of hair that naturally occur on the scalp that we seek to move to the areas of thinning. There are many different types of microscopes that people use to dissect grafts and many different levels of magnification. Some physicians only have their staff use magnifying glasses on light boxes. I personally have my staff dissecting our grafts using brand new state of the art microscopes with 10x magnification and LED lighting. These microscopes are much more expensive than the typical microscopes but I believe they perform a superior job in dissecting the grafts. The 10x magnification is necessary to visualize the follicle in it’s entirety and allow for optimal dissection and the LED lighting provides excellent visualization while generating almost no heat (which typical lighting generates and can cause the grafts to dry out thus diminishing their chances of survival). Lessor magnification can result in the loss of intact follicles that cannot be visualized under lower magnification. This is turn can lead a lower survival of grafts in the hair transplant procedure.
In summary, state of the art high powered LED lit microscopes are more expensive, but superior in creating healthy follicular units for use in hair transplant procedures.
All the best,
Marc Dauer, MD