A Discussion of Current Techniques

[Dr. Tejinder Bhatti]

I believe FUE will be the new gold standard and advancements in ARTAS will allow it to make it's way into more and more clinics. If piloscopy is truly as fruitful as we expect it to be, this will also be an enormous advancement. I definitely believe within the next 2-5 years strip, as you mentioned, will be less prevalent

Thank you to the esteemed forum members that have participated thus far.

Mr. Jamesst11,

You have an interesting view about FUE being the new gold standard. I do agree with you and the point about ARTAS is valid. My concern with the robot is that it will be placed into the hands of novices that do not understand the challenges that various patients can present. Piloscopy is an interesting development as well and I am anxious to see how it unfolds over time.

[arfy]

FUE will gain in popularity. However, just because a clinic does FUE doesn't mean the results will be good. FUE is the harvesting method only, and patients can still have bad yields or unnatural looking results with FUE. Whether FUE continues to grow depends on the competence of the clinics who do it. The public usually doesn't want strip surgery, once they understand what it is. With the rapid expansion and aggressive marketing of FUE, if there are incompetent clinics doing the procedure (and not all clinics can perform surgery at an equally high level) it could negatively impact the hair transplant business overall.

[J_B_Davis]

I believe that FUE will be perceived as the “gold standard” and eventually dominate the market based on consumer demand and the stigma that has been created of having a strip scar. Some of this stigma is warranted, because there are so many chop shops doing very poor work, but I personally do not believe that FUE is always in the best interest of the person and that strip will be indicated for those who are either not candidates for FUE or for those who have a very limited donor supply and every graft counts.

I agree with Jamesst11 as far as the advancement of robotics but I think that Piliscopy will have a very limited reach and that mFUE, just judging from a video posted on this site, is kind of pointless.

This is best video I’ve ever seen on the topic. To me this makes sense, but I know that most clinics will eventually become FUE only.

https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/threads/21519-FUE-Vs.-FUT-Why-FUE-Alone-Might-Not-Be-The-Perfect-Solution

[jamesst11]

I believe FUE will be the new gold standard and advancements in ARTAS will allow it to make it's way into more and more clinics. If piloscopy is truly as fruitful as we expect it to be, this will also be an enormous advancement. I definitely believe within the next 2-5 years strip, as you mentioned, will be less prevalent

[Dr. Tejinder Bhatti]

Hello everyone. I am happy to take part on Bald Truth Talk to engage patients and to provoke healthy discussion with colleagues.

I would like to discuss the opinions that each of you have regarding the merits of different techniques that are currently available to the patient. As we all know follicular unit strip surgery has been the gold standard for many years. However, FUE has been quickly gaining ground and as of the latest reports from the ISHRS FUE is now at parity with strip surgery in that approximatley 1/2 of all procedures performed are FUE. I personally halted all strip surgery in my clinic several years ago and I am performing only FUE surgery exclusively. Strip is quickly moving to the background as some of the last hold outs for strip exclusive offerings have surrendered to the patient demand for FUE. With the number of new clinics opening every day, and they most likely are only offering FUE, the growth will continue to climb and eventually push strip into a niche only corner of the industry.

I would like to hear other opinions about the present state of the industry and where readers and members believe it is headed. Is FUE going to continue to grow? Will strip make some sort of comeback or will an alternative procedure be presented such as Piloscopy or mFUE that will make an impact on the future of surgery?

I look forward to all of your comments and opinions on this subject.