Like just about anything, there is always room for improvement. Although wonderful hair restoration results have been achieved with Follicular Unit Extraction, standard practices of this type of surgery in which the donor pool is limited to the safe donor area (SDA) of the head are still limited for certain cases. Advnaced FUE has evolved to enable the utilization of hair that are outside the SDA of the head as well as far flung parts of the body. Advanced FUE has found applications in the following examples including:
(1) Severe baldness
Conventional Follicular Unit Extraction procedures extract hair follicles from the head. However, in most cases, only a maximum of about 7,000 grafts can be attained. This is not enough for patients who are severely bald and only have a narrow rim of hair around the bottom of their head.
(2) Correctional repair from past procedures
When a patient chooses to undergo hair restoration, they do not anticipate additional surgeries to fix bad mistakes. But this is actually more common than many would like to believe. After prior procedures, the number of usable hair follicles from the head is often not enough for the coverage that is needed.
Advanced FUE – Follicular Unit Extraction – What It Is and Why It is Needed
Advanced FUE transplant procedures are the next evolution in hair restoration. Like basic FUE, it also involves extracting individual follicular units (natural groupings of hair) directly from their source.
However, instead of targeting grafts from the head, in UGraft advanced FUE, other sources of follicles are considered. Examples include:
- chest
- arms
- legs
- back
- stomach
- beard area
The beard region is a very abundant source of follicular grafts. This can be instrumental in creating large donor pools, such as 10,000-20,000 grafts. These quantities can offer the hope of excellent coverage for severely bald patients and those who want to repair the results from past procedures.
The Use of Highly Specialized Tools
In order to harvest body hair follicles, the excisions must be minimally invasive to avoid the risk of noticeable scars on visible areas like the face, legs etc. Also body hair grafts are far more delicate than head hair. They also grow in angled curvatures beneath the skin.
Current FUE surgical tools are limited in accounting for these characteristics. Many of them produce punches that are too big for the removal of body hair follicles. And they do not adequately account for the curved growth of this hair. Using tools that are not ideally matched for body hair follicles can put them at risk for being damaged or buried.
This is why Dr. Umar has developed customized uGraft surgical tools. They are crafted for precision with the help of computer software. The excision punches account for both the size and the shape of the wound. This is done to expedite the wound healing process so that the outcome is cosmetically insignificant.
With typical FUE tools, the doctor needs to identify the angle of hair growth and use the surgical punch instrument to trace the outer border of the follicular unit. However, this may result in errors that damage the follicle. The uGraft uses a mild pulling action. This helps extract the grafts with greater precision and less risk of damage.
The use of uGraft instruments makes the objectives of advanced Follicular Unit Extraction an actual reality. Combined with the high level skill of a good doctor, excellent outcomes for even the most challenging cases can be achieved.
To learn more about hair restoration for severe baldness, click here to read more.
Read about UPunch Curl from UGraft systems for FUE of Afro-textured haired individuals