How to evaluate a patient for surgical restoration

[John P. Cole, MD]

Surgical evaluation involves collecting as much data as possible in addition to family history and patient expectations.

For example, we evaluated and treated this patient today. His cross sectional trichometry in his donor area was 89. Average is 69 in virgin scalps. He has loss confined to the frontal area. His hair diameter is 69. He is a NW 3A. He has 70 FU/ sqcm and 170 hairs per sqcm. He has 16415 total follicular units in his donor area. His surface area of hair loss was 45 sq cm, but some of this still has hair of significant diameter.

We used a 0.85 mm punch to harvest his donor area. His transection rate was under 1%. He averaged 2.48 hairs per graft laterally and 2.8 hairs per hairs per graft centrally.

Based on his donor area characteristics, his expectations, and his surface area of loss, he is an optimal candidate fro hair restoration surgery. He can hit a home run. We evaluate all of these characteristics prior to every procedure. This is how one thoroughly evaluates a patient for hair restoration surgery. Of course, it helps to have a family history, but at age 47, we do not expect more significant hair loss in this patient.