Buyer beware. Is this what you expect from 6800 FUE?

[Dr. Lindsey]

This nice guy in his 50s called a few weeks ago and I ended up coming in on a Saturday to meet the guy and see if this story held water. I believe its truthful, given my interaction with the man and a couple of other similar cases I've seen.

This reasonably healthy pacific island man says that he had 2 2500 neograft cases a month apart about 3 years ago. Then when he confronted the doctor about low growth, he was reassured that it was growing and paid for another 1800 neografts.

The first picture is of his recipient area, and he's class 5 or more. His preop pic looks to me like he's gotten maybe 1000 to 1200 HAIRS from his $20,000.00 investment.

The donor area is the second picture. I see THOUSANDS of depigmented spots. That is the bad news. He's full of scar. The good news is that many of the depigmented spots have hairs growing out of them. Good news you ask? While I wasn't there...having done a fair amount of FUE I think I know what happened.

Lots of punches were made, and you'd think that in a straight hair guy like this, it would be like taking candy from a baby to come in at the correct angle and get nearly a 100% success rate. However, the U in FUE may stand for unpredictable....and sometimes you just either can't get the right angle OR the hair avulses off and leaves the root, which regrows hair.

All of us have had cases where you have a few hairs like this and all of us have had guys who it just was tough to get any FUE's out. In fact just a few months ago I did, or started, an FUE to fix a strip scar (from elsewhere) with FUE. Same Pacific island as this guy....I figured we'd get 200 FUEs out in 30 minutes and be done in 3 hrs....After 2 hours of trying, and seeing significant hairs pull out without a root, and making 100 punches using a hand instrument, feller instrument, safe instrument and just not having luck at all....we stopped. Better to stop than to keep scarring the guy's head, no matter how small the punches are, than to keep going without success.

So I would guess that the techs, who, per this man, did the entire case, just kept going, root or no root on the hair, and hence there is nothing to show for that large investment of money and time and ouch.

The last bit of good news is that while he has 6000 punch marks in the donor area, he still has a LOT of donor hair. I hope we'll be able to do a strip repair and then see how he grows.

You know, there is no guarantee that any hair case will work...but to get 5000 FUE's with no growth, and then pay for another 1800 and have no growth and no depletion of his donor area is just not ideal.

While I can't guarantee a strip will work on him either, I am sure we'll transplant viable follicles and I expect SIGNIFICANT growth.

Stay tuned.

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[PayDay]

This is very sad, but I remember back in 2008 or 2009, I think, when Spencer Kobren was talking about this very thing on almost a weekly basis on his radio show. One thing he always emphasized was that the damage would not be caused by the machine per say since it is just like another punch with a motor, but by the uncaring and untrained people who use it.

I remember one show when he had Dr. Bauman on who uses the NeoGraft saying that there was going to be endless damage done if the machine gets in the wrong hands. That was very honest of Dr. Bauman since he was such a huge proponent of the NeoGraft. I’m actually surprised that people still use it, when there are so many other ways to do FUE. It probably has to do with advertising for non hair transplant doctors who just want to make a quick buck.

Thank you for posting this Dr. Lindsey. Maybe you should have titled it “Buyer Beware of anyone who hires unqualified technicians to do FUE extractions” I hope you can help this man out and he should demand a full refund from the other place.

[JoeTillman]

Thank you for posting this Dr. Lindsey. Maybe you should have titled it “Buyer Beware of anyone who hires unqualified technicians to do FUE extractions” I hope you can help this man out and he should demand a full refund from the other place.

I agree with Payday because I think the existing title is misleading. One might say that all FUE is the same but I think we all know that the tools can be and are vastly different to do the same thing. Dr. Bauman for instance still uses Neograft but he disabled the vacuum component long ago. I was speaking to him several months ago about this very issue and he told me that the punch handle designed by Neograft is the best one he's tried. He believes the angle of the handle, the weight and more importantly, the balance, are the best available so as it stands he uses it as just another motorized punch and he gets good results.

You know, there is no guarantee that any hair case will work...but to get 5000 FUE's with no growth, and then pay for another 1800 and have no growth and no depletion of his donor area is just not ideal.

There is nothing ideal about this at all but it can, and has happened, in many MANY FUSS cases as well. I've seen them. This scenario is hardly unique to FUE in general. I think the real issue here is two fold. First, the clinic pushing more surgery (three in total) on the patient AND making him pay for it. Second, the patient didn't feel that two times at bat were enough before he should maybe take a moment to step back and re-evaluate his decisions. Both parties have a part to play in this.

While I can't guarantee a strip will work on him either, I am sure we'll transplant viable follicles and I expect SIGNIFICANT growth.

I'm sure that is the case but I would also wager that a clinic that takes more care with their extractions would also have a significant improvement regarding growth compared to what this poor patient has experienced thus far.

[Dr. Lindsey]

Here are 2 screen shots of neograft ads I get a couple of times a month. They appear to be targeting ENT doctors (I am an ENT) and likely others, to add this "profit center" to their practices.

I know 2 of my residency buddies have been approached by them reported saying that for a 100k investment they'd run everything, all the doctor had to supply was the license...and office space. I didn't hear that myself but did hear it from guys I shared call with in residency who do NOT do hair, aren't starting, and think its ridiculous to offer surgery without some kind of expertise.

I have also heard through the grapevine that my old training institution is buying one to add hair to the ENT department. Time will tell. Having worked at 2 academic centers, I think it would be difficult to have a dedicated team for hair...likely leading to travelling techs and inconsistent results.

Buyer beware indeed.

Dr. Lindsey