Surgical treatment of hair loss

Abstract

• Follicular units have become the basic building block of modern hair transplantation and terminology. The donor tissue harvesting technique has changed enormously in the last 15 years and has revolutionized what can be accomplished with hair transplanting. • Planning for hair transplanting should consider present as well as future areas of involvement, and one should ideally transplant into areas that are still hair bearing, but that can reasonably be expected to become alopecic in the future. It is not necessary to wait until an area is completely alopecic before starting hair transplanting. The patient can also have the option of spreading transplant sessions over a long period of time, keeping pace with further hair loss, thereby making the cost and inconvenience of transplanting more manageable. • If follicular units are used exclusively, the results will look totally natural in any area when all of the original hair has been lost. • A substantial majority of women can also achieve excellent results with hair transplantation. A growing number of female patients are having their hairlines and pre-auricular hair re-established after facial plastic surgery. • Patients with cicatricial alopecia may be treated with flap surgery or alopecia reduction with or without preceding soft tissue expansion. In addition, hair transplanting can be successfully utilized in such individuals. © 2008 Springer-Verlag.