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A Discussion of Current Techniques
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.
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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
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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/thread...rfect-Solution
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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.
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![Quote](https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/images/misc/quote_icon.png) Originally Posted by 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
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.
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![Quote](https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/images/misc/quote_icon.png) Originally Posted by 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/thread...rfect-Solution
Thank you Mr. J_B_Davis for your opinion. I agree that some of the stigma regarding strip scarring is warranted simply due to the undpredicatable nature of patient healing. No matter how skilled a surgeon may be there can always be factors at play that we cannot anticipate that may be unique to a patient, or type of patient. These factors can be impossible to identify visually. "Chop shops" is a good way of describing how any clinic, FUT or FUE, can cause harm. That is why it is difficult for me when clinics present cases of bad or isolated cases of FUE and claim that all FUE is similar. It is unfortunate but is the way of the online market. I understand your position on Piloscopy but I am not sure what kind of "reach" it will have. Why do you believe that mFUE is "pointless"?
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![Quote](https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/images/misc/quote_icon.png) Originally Posted by Dr. Tejinder Bhatti
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.
My concern with CURRENT techniques is that they are placed in the hands of novices. As with anything, despite the technique utilized, there will always be unexperienced, unethical HT surgeons engaging in them. Unfortunately, I am a product of such callous abuse in the field, as are many others.
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![Quote](https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/images/misc/quote_icon.png) Originally Posted by 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.
Thank you, Mr. Arfy for your participation. I agree 100% with your comments. I believe it is easy to say that no patients come into a clinic asking for strip surgery but they all come in asking for FUE. Unfortunately there are many many clinics that have picked up on the desire for FUE and this is one reason why we see so much growth in the field overall. There are opportunists in every aspect of life and it is no different with hair restoration surgery, more so now with FUE. It is up to those that are ethical with their practice to stand up and educate patients about the pitfalls that await them without their due diligence but even then problems can arise. By being educators as well as physicians we can help to limit the fall out from such practices.
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![Quote](https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/images/misc/quote_icon.png) Originally Posted by jamesst11
My concern with CURRENT techniques is that they are placed in the hands of novices. As with anything, despite the technique utilized, there will always be unexperienced, unethical HT surgeons engaging in them. Unfortunately, I am a product of such callous abuse in the field, as are many others.
Mr. Jamesst11,
As mentioned to Mr. Arfy I agree with your point. I am sorry to know of the abuse you have been subjected to. I hope you find a solution that gives you peace. If I can be of any service with regards to your case I am happy to provide, with no obligations on your part whatsoever.
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![Quote](https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/images/misc/quote_icon.png) Originally Posted by Dr. Tejinder Bhatti
Thank you Mr. J_B_Davis for your opinion. I agree that some of the stigma regarding strip scarring is warranted simply due to the undpredicatable nature of patient healing. No matter how skilled a surgeon may be there can always be factors at play that we cannot anticipate that may be unique to a patient, or type of patient. These factors can be impossible to identify visually. "Chop shops" is a good way of describing how any clinic, FUT or FUE, can cause harm. That is why it is difficult for me when clinics present cases of bad or isolated cases of FUE and claim that all FUE is similar. It is unfortunate but is the way of the online market. I understand your position on Piloscopy but I am not sure what kind of "reach" it will have. Why do you believe that mFUE is "pointless"?
Hello Dr. Bhatti,
Let me first answer your question on why I believe mFUE is pointless, at least in the way that I have seen it performed in this video posted by Dr. Lindsey
https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/thread...trip-McLean-VA
It appears that the punch being used is not only huge, but can transect a lot of hair around the edges of each punched out piece of tissue. Since it also appears that the procedure was performed in a linear fashion, leaving only a very minuscule amount of hair bearing tissue between each punch, the patent will still be left with what can only be described as a “modified” linear scar. He will basically be left with dashes across his head.
Now I can see the advantage of there being less tension on each wound, but if you include the possible transection and the fact that there is valuable donor being left behind, it would probably be in the best interest of this patient to have had another strip since he already has a linear scar from his first hair transplant. mFUE seems like the wrong name for this procedure, perhaps mStrip would be more appropriate? This is course is just my observation based on that video, and I am in no way questioning Dr. Linsey’s skill or the fact that he seems like a very caring doctor.
Concerning your response to Jamess11 about the ARTAS robot, to be honest, I would be more concerned about a scalpel or punches getting in to the hands of novices, which apparently happens every day judging from some of the horror stories on the internet. These novices don’t understand the challenges that various patients present either, yet they are carving these poor guys up and hoping for the best. At least with the robot these patients have a chance.
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