What Is Robotic Hair Transplant Like For Patients?

What Is Robotic FUE Like For Hair Transplant Patients?

One of the interesting things about doing FUE, especially robotic procedures, is we make the recipient sites first. When we do a normal strip procedure, we're never sure exactly how many grafts are going to be on the strip. So, we take the strip out, and as the staff is dissecting the strip under a microscope, we're making the recipient sites in the front of the scalp and I need that information of how many grafts are going to be generated from the strip to know how many sites to make. With FUE, it's a little bit different. We know exactly how many we're going to get, because we go in and we're taking them out one by one. As the grafts are being removed, we're working on the back of the scalp, and we can't work on the front at the same time. So in an FUE procedure, what I do is I make the recipient sites first. If a person needs 2,000 grafts, I'll make 2,000 sites. Sometimes we do that the day before, and when the person comes in for the robotic part of the procedure we just go in and we get our 2,000 grafts and the sites are already made so we can put the grafts right in. Not only does it save time, but it also, most importantly, decreases the time the grafts are outside the body. So, once they're harvested they can go right back into the scalp. We generally give the patient local anesthesia in our regular operating room, which sits adjacent to the operating room that houses the robot. The patient is anesthetized, given some Valium to relax, and then sitting in the robot the patient is actually on an angle, face down. They're leaning forward into this pillow and their face is in this cushioned horseshoe. And they just relax. Many patients take a nap during the procedure. It's pretty long. The robot just works on the back of the head. The doctor stays either adjacent to the patient with a hand-held device, or adjacent to the patient at a computer monitor. The nurse will be at either one of the other stations. The patient is hearing what's going on, hears the clicking of the robot, but really doesn't feel anything, he's already anesthetized just like a regular hair transplant. So it's a little bit more boring, because the patient can't watch TV during the surgery. But it's pretty relaxing, your face is down and you're just on a pillow. So it's not a big deal.

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