Q: Does the robotic hair transplant system do the whole operation or does the doctor do any of it? — B.W., Brooklyn, NY

A: The ARTAS robot only performs a small part of the FUE procedure, although it is an important one. FUE comprises four basic steps:

1. Isolation of follicular units from the surrounding skin
2. Removal of follicular units from the scalp
3. Making recipient sites
4. Placing grafts into these sites

The robot only performs the first step, follicular unit isolation.

Even in this first step, however, physician control is extremely important, as the doctor must determine the precise depth to which both the sharp and blunt dissection are set. They must also make constant adjustments to the angle that aligns the instrument with the graft.

The ARTAS robotic system gets all of its cues from the surface of the skin, so that it can place the target follicular unit in the exact center of the cutting field of the robotic tip. It can also align the tip parallel with the emergent hairs. However, the angle of the hair as it emerges from the scalp is slightly different than the angle below the skin and the doctor needs to tell the robot what this angle is. Fortunately, the robotic imaging system provides the doctor with the information he needs to make this determination.

Read about Robotic Hair Transplantation.