Michael Vories, MD FUE Test Case

[Michael Vories, MD]

This is an interesting case of a 29 year old male who went through a MRSA infection of the scalp several years ago which resulted in hair loss that has been stable for the past year. To test the scarring area for blood supply we grafted 104 grafts into an area with total hair loss. These were harvested with FUE using a 0.80 mm Vortex sharp punch, and placed with Hans Lion Implanters. Six months later, we did close up photos to determine graft survival.

The reason I bring this case forward is at the recent ISHRS meeting in Las Vegas I was challenged by a physician at dinner one night. The question was that even though we have lots of subjective cases of good growth with FUE, there are no definitive studies to show that FUE graft survival is comparable to FUT graft survival.

This is not this definitive study. It is simply one case, in which we were able to clip the grafted hair and perform hair counts. At the six month mark, of the 104 graft placed, we counted 99 grafts growing, with a graft survival of 95%. And this is into scar tissue, which normally would be expected to have poorer growth compared to normal skin tissue. But at a minimum, we would like to dispel that "fact" that FUT grafts have a better survival rate than FUE when performed correctly.