Donar Scar Repair from 13 year old grafts...

[DrKDSiporin]

Hello- I read about Donor scar repair all the time, but never about the type of scarring I have. I currently shave at a 2 and show a little of the open donor/harvesting look that is shown in the link below. I would love to shave it all off, get the scars lasered off if possible but can't really find much info on this. Just thought I would ask to see what you thought. My goal is to be bald with minimal scarring if possible. The procedure I had done was 13 years ago. Thanks for you time.



Thanks for your time..

Stokes

http://www.bernsteinmedical.com/hair.../fixing-scars/

Without viewing any photographs of your donor scar area, I can give you some general information about scars and scar revisions.
First of all, it is most important to determine what are your objections with the scar. Is it that the scar is widened? Is the scar raised? Is the scar narrow and is noticeable because of a color mismatch with the surrounding tissue. In hair transplantation scarring, the problem usually is that there is no hair growing within the scar, and so a straight line is detectable. Of course FUE removes the straight line scar, but this does not mean there is no scar, it is just much harder to detect. I agree with the patient advisor who told you that FUE would be one way to improve the scar, but I would need to see how wide of an area you need to cover, to tell you how likely it is that FUE would provide you with a good solution. Often in patients who have open donor area scarring, it is difficult to obtain enough scalp hair via the FUE technique to make a big difference, but you can use body hair to minimize the scarring. Laser's do not remove scars, they make them more inconspicuous. Laser's target certain aspects of the scar for improvement, such as color, or contour, and help to minimize the scar by affecting either color or contour. It is very unlikely that laser alone would provide a tremendous improvement, unless the scar was raised or red, in which case the laser cut flatten the scar, and make it less red. Lasers cannot put hair back into an area of scarring, nor can it erase the scar completely.
I hope this gives you some useful information.
Dr. Ken Siporin, Los Aneles, CA