Introduction: Hair transplant is a common cosmetic surgical procedure. Finer and newer techniques are coming up very often. We have developed this (suction assisted hair implantation) technique mainly to avoid post-surgical dermal cysts formation due to hypodermic needle prick and to get bloodless operative field
Materials& methods:
752 clients underwent suction assisted hair implantation procedure for past 5 years. Around 744 were males and 8 were females with age group ranging from 23 to 55 yrs. inserting the hair grafts by Suction Assisted Implantation made the procedure faster, safer and easier
Harvesting was done by
1: Follicular unit transplant (FUT)
Or
2: Follicular unit extraction (FUE)
For inserting grafts, we used 19 – 21 gauge hypodermic needles to make holes and to insert the grafts. For easy insertion of the graft we used suction negative pressure. The needle was attached to a 14 size suction catheter which in turn was attached to a suction machine which produces a mild vacuum suction pressure (approximately 40 – 80mm of hg).The suction power sucks out the blood making the field clear for easy visualization of the hole. It also removes the skin debris produced during piercing. The negative suction easily guides the graft to get into the hole during insertion
RESULTS
By this technique the epidermal cyst formation was almost totally prevented and we were able to do the procedure in a bloodless field with easy insertion of the grafts
Conclusion:
1: The suction sucks out the dermal skin debris produced by the piercing of the skin with hypo dermic needles, and hence avoids the formation of dermal inclusion cysts.
2: Sucks out the oozing blood and hence produces clear field for easy insertion.
3: The suction negative pressure automatically guides the hair graft to enter into the hole easily without much manipulation and hence faster surgery can be done