ACell, a Current Review of Applications in Hair Transplant Surgery

[Spanish Dude]

What or who is a "cheap believer"?

posters who are total newbies but consider themselves entitled to insult any hint of scepticism that comes from experienced forum members.

[PatientlyWaiting]

Okay, thanks to montrose and Spanish Dude for their input on my questions.

[PatientlyWaiting]

Dr. Hitzig offers acell+prp injections as a stand alone treatment. He has two sets of photos on his website. When I contacted his office about it the price seemed a bit high for something that is still in its experimental stage.

Can you tell me the price of this injection? I live in New York and I see he has an office in NY. I saw the before and after pictures on his page from the link you posted. It's nothing that made me jump around in my seat, but it's pretty good for something that's still just in it's baby stages.

[Gary Hitzig MD]

Sorry I Have Not Posted Recently

Yes as was pointed out and I had discussed on the Bald Truth Program several times, my initial pluckings in 5 patients did have an incredibly high yield. If you remember, I also stated that it was like walking into a casino and putting a dollar in the slot machine and winning-you generalize too quickly that it will always happen-it did not!
If that was universal I would never had sought out adjunct treatments (especially ACell) to improve my success rate. The results were preliminary yet exciting with the hope of future expansion on the technique to make it more viable. I have always had my limits on where I applied it and never intended to use it to replace traditional donor, but instead to help those with limited or no donor or for those with very small areas of hair loss.
ACell allowed us to start plucking scalp hair and develop a successful transference to other scalp areas-only beard hairs had worked in the past.
We are proceeding carefully so as not to generalize our early results-we hope to sustain them and have others reproduce or improve on the technique which is tedious. Let me say that despite what some have said, the plucked hairs DO grow back.

As far as the donor picture with ACell, this was a medical student who had a large transplant and agreed to have his donor area closed with ACell plus simple loose sutures on the left, and simple sutures alone loosely applied on the right. He was of course rewarded for his volunteering (reduced fee) but also knew he would never be shaving his head. He also knew, as a Student Doctor the point of the trial. If you magnify the pictures you will see the whitish remnant of the scar on the left although hairs grow through it. The right side speaks for itself. This was a case who came for re-evaluation very recently and it was exciting to see the result. Will this be every result-I hope so but can't and won't predict but if you look at the slide show from my talk, you will see it to be very dependable.
Sorry not to have posted in a bit but I have been quite busy with my paper and with some exciting new stuff.
Best to all of you
GH

[RichardDawkins]

I am glad you answered some questions. So to make it clear only for the record and for future discussions to refer to

1) Hairplucking with acell works as a hairtransplant but the downside is that it is very tedious. So we can say Expanded donor is possible right now but the technique to get plucking to perfection and make it less tedious needs some time.

Am i correct here or did i get it wrong?

[Gary Hitzig MD]

For Patiently Waiting

The results are what they are to date. It's still early but very promising. I have always felt that it's easier to save the hair than to grow it back and I do believe there is a point of no return when the miniaturazation is irreversible.
As I keep telling multiple patient inquiries, please prove me wrong.
I think time will tell us whether we need multiple injections or if not, how long between them. I look as the ACell/PRP injections like a flu shot--it may not work 100% but it certainly is helpful.
Sorry you haven't been blown away by the results, but the results are the results to date.
Hope to blow you away in time.
GH

[wolvie1985]

I for one am blown away. Thanks doc.

[Gary Hitzig MD]

Hi Richard,

You have gotten it very right. When you pluck hairs CORRECTLY there is still a significant loss factor due to fracture of the bulb etc. Every "pluck" has to be carefully examined for damage under the microscope. I know they grow back because quite simply, to test, I plucked out most if not all the hairs in a section of the donor until it was shiny bald. Several months later there are no shiny bald spots where they were plucked-simple but effective proof.
At the ISHRS, we plucked out the hair of some disbelieving surgeons and had them look at their own hair under the microscopes (for salle in the exhibitor hall)-they were amazed how they looked like an FUE extraction graft.
This is what we need to work on- to improve the plucking technique and make it less tedious and more universal
We need constructive assistance as well as criticism
GH

[RichardDawkins]

Dr Hitzig thank you very much for making this clear to "hopefully" everyone right now.

This will also give hope to repair patients as well and people like me who are afraid of FUT.

Iam also very thankful, that you and Dr Cooley are taking the steps to work on a perfect plucking technique even if FUT would be more comfortable in time etc.

And iam really looking forward to more results, cause right now i say you contribute a huge amount of "awesomeness" to the field of hairloss and hair restoration.

Thank you

[LarryDavid]

I have been quite busy with my paper and with some exciting new stuff.
GH

tell us about it

[LarryDavid]

And one more Question:
Dr. Hitzig, what do you think about FUE Hairmultiplication by regenerating the donor with Acell PRP after a FUE procedure? Are you or Dr. Cooley working on this?

And thanks a lot for answering questions here.

[Spanish Dude]

Dr. Hitzig, I hope you understand my scepticism, but now you say you hit 5 consecutive jackpots back in 2003, and then no luck?
You tested the technique in 5 individuals, and reported a 80-85% average yield. This was beard plucking without Acell.

Now you say that it was just 5 consecutive jackpots, and then the good luck disappeared. Sorry but I can't believe it.
Furthermore, you maintained the 5-patient success story in your website until recently and I think you never reported that it was just a "jackpot" and the technique was really a failure.

Now, regarding the strip healing with Acell (the 3 photos we have been discussing in the last few days) you have not addressed our doubts.
1. Why did you shave the hair only under the scar? The supposed fine scar on the left can't be seen properly because you parted the hair upwards, and the partline coincides with the position of the supposed scar.
The fine line seen on the left could be just an illusion created by the hair parting. I can't see any significant "whitish remnant" you are talking about.
If you were so excited about the result, why didn't you shave it properly to properly expose the beautiful tiny scar?
2. Could you post the photos "just after surgery" on this patient?

thanks

Yes as was pointed out and I had discussed on the Bald Truth Program several times, my initial pluckings in 5 patients did have an incredibly high yield. If you remember, I also stated that it was like walking into a casino and putting a dollar in the slot machine and winning-you generalize too quickly that it will always happen-it did not!
If that was universal I would never had sought out adjunct treatments (especially ACell) to improve my success rate. The results were preliminary yet exciting with the hope of future expansion on the technique to make it more viable. I have always had my limits on where I applied it and never intended to use it to replace traditional donor, but instead to help those with limited or no donor or for those with very small areas of hair loss.
ACell allowed us to start plucking scalp hair and develop a successful transference to other scalp areas-only beard hairs had worked in the past.
We are proceeding carefully so as not to generalize our early results-we hope to sustain them and have others reproduce or improve on the technique which is tedious. Let me say that despite what some have said, the plucked hairs DO grow back.

As far as the donor picture with ACell, this was a medical student who had a large transplant and agreed to have his donor area closed with ACell plus simple loose sutures on the left, and simple sutures alone loosely applied on the right. He was of course rewarded for his volunteering (reduced fee) but also knew he would never be shaving his head. He also knew, as a Student Doctor the point of the trial. If you magnify the pictures you will see the whitish remnant of the scar on the left although hairs grow through it. The right side speaks for itself. This was a case who came for re-evaluation very recently and it was exciting to see the result. Will this be every result-I hope so but can't and won't predict but if you look at the slide show from my talk, you will see it to be very dependable.
Sorry not to have posted in a bit but I have been quite busy with my paper and with some exciting new stuff.
Best to all of you
GH

[Bakez]

If Dr Hitzig is writing a paper, then we should wait for this, there is no point in hear say now. What journal will it be published in?

[CVAZBAR]

Dr. Hitzig, Do you have an update on the results for the enhanced PRP? What about the HIP Stem Cell extraction procedure you were going to learn? Did you finally get in contact with Cotsarelis? Hopefully you have some good news on all of this. Thanks DOC.

[SilverSurfer]

To Montrose

Montrose,
How much did they tell you the PRP+ACell injections were at Dr Hitzig's office??($$$$$)
I am curious since I might get the treatment myself.
Please let me know in order to evaluate if I should procede with Dr Hitzig or Dr Greco.
Thanks