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This 17 year old boy is about 9 years out from radiation treatments to cure cancer in the jaw joint. His entire right parietal scalp is without hair and this causes him a lot of distress. Readers may recall that I posted a similar case that we did last year with a one year update this past May with excellent results, also in a young man. And readers may know that my daughter has brain cancer, so I am only too familiar with what these kids have had to endure.
This family came to see me and we discussed a strip procedure and our first case will place hair more toward the middle, hoping that gravity will allow hair growth to come down and camouflage lower down hair loss. I personally believe that it will take a second case, just like the other young man we did, to get good coverage.
I was very frank with the patient and his parents that I have only done one of these cases….but that I am highly motivated to help them, given my personal situation with my daughter. Our medical student is writing this case up for presentation and publication, and he’s been unable to find much in the medical literature so we are all in somewhat uncharted territory. Given the radiation, I am not sure it’s going to work….but I’m certainly hopeful. His recipient area felt like normal scalp, it appeared to have good vascularity and he did great cleaning.
We did his case in mid August 2011, and on Thanksgiving his mom emailed me that he was growing. He had a day off from school last week and stopped in at just under 6 months. He’s growing nicely in the area we worked in. I’m suggesting a second case to work laterally once he graduates from high school in June and before he starts college.
Dr. Lindsey McLean VA
This family came to see me and we discussed a strip procedure and our first case will place hair more toward the middle, hoping that gravity will allow hair growth to come down and camouflage lower down hair loss. I personally believe that it will take a second case, just like the other young man we did, to get good coverage.
I was very frank with the patient and his parents that I have only done one of these cases….but that I am highly motivated to help them, given my personal situation with my daughter. Our medical student is writing this case up for presentation and publication, and he’s been unable to find much in the medical literature so we are all in somewhat uncharted territory. Given the radiation, I am not sure it’s going to work….but I’m certainly hopeful. His recipient area felt like normal scalp, it appeared to have good vascularity and he did great cleaning.
We did his case in mid August 2011, and on Thanksgiving his mom emailed me that he was growing. He had a day off from school last week and stopped in at just under 6 months. He’s growing nicely in the area we worked in. I’m suggesting a second case to work laterally once he graduates from high school in June and before he starts college.
Dr. Lindsey McLean VA
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