Time of surgery

I had a surgery with 500 grafts last November. I'm happy thus far with the results and am likely to continue with a larger replacement; probably 3000 grafts.

My confusion arises because the 500 graft surgery took at least 3 hours, maybe closer to 4. They told me they ended up putting in about 590 grafts (without charging extra). I'm now told that a 3000 graft surgery should take about 6 hours. This just doesn't add up.

My main concern is this: How can a person verify the amount of grafts that they are putting in? I'm not concerned of getting the exact amount, but I would really have no way to tell what the difference was between 1500 and 3000, for example.

Any suggestions?

At our clinic, Dr. Cole uses a disposable instrument, called a Counting Incision Device, which maintains the incision count during recipient site preparation. The CID displays the count on a small LED screen (which the patient can view post-surgery, or at any time throughout).