NHI Announces new Transplant Procedure

Article by HairlossTalk.com

Exclusive interview with Dr. Rassman on a new technique that may revolutionize the way transplants are done...NHI has long been the only hair transplant organization out there which we at HairlossTalk have been comfortable promoting. The reasons for this are numerous, but are and always have been grounded in the fact that no other organization has had so many happy customers contact us with good reports, good results, and comments on an overall caring, and responsible experience.

Because of this, we are happy to announce a new technique that is entering the transplant world here in the United States via NHI, which, for qualified individuals will actually eliminate the threat of having to go through the painful and difficult process of strip incision in order to have a transplant done. Traditional Hair Transplants require a strip of hair-covered scalp to be extracted from the back of the head in order to provide the donor grafts for transplantation to the frontal balding areas of the scalp. NHI is about to introduce a way to avoid this permanently for qualified individuals.

Another doctor in Australia by the name of Dr. Woods has been performing an undocumented procedure of similar nature, and many are calling NHI's new technique a "copy" of it. We had the opportunity to speak directly with the Founder and Director of the New Hair Institute, Dr. William R. Rassman, MD about this new procedure, his thoughts on the Woods procedure, and a special look into his position on Dr. Gho and the reported Hair Multiplication technique he may be developing.

HairlossTalk: Word around town is that NHI has an "Enhanced Woods Technique" coming?

Dr. Rassman: I don't have any real idea as to what this Doctor does. When you talk to some of the doctors in Australia, they don't have many good things to say about what they have seen. They've have reported to me that they have seen a substantial number of failures related to the technique which he is performing, and the patients have been complaining about their results. I am sure he must have some good results, but as I never spoke to that doctor, or seen his work in person, I have no direct information about what he is doing. He is very secretive about it.

HairlossTalk: Could you explain for us exactly what NHI is introducing?

Dr. Rassman: NHI has a technique, which we are calling Follicular Unit Extractiontm (FUE). It involves the removal of individual follicular units from the back of the head without a linear incision. At this time we are doing about 3 of these procedures a week, and it is working out very well. This is a new technique that will have a limited application. It is a technique that only certain people can benefit from. We have compiled a list of prerequisites to determine who will benefit from such a procedure. These are posted on our web site.

HairlossTalk: What might disqualify a person for the Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) technique?

Dr. Rassman: In our work performing follicular unit extraction over the past years we have encountered an unacceptably high rate of follicular transection. By way of background, a hair follicle is an organ. It has blood supply, nerves, muscle, glands, connective tissue in addition to the actual hair producing section. A heart is an organ also. If I cut a heart into two pieces, it would die. So does a hair organ. Transection is cutting a living hair follicle into at least two parts, neither or which may live. We have noted that there a subset of patients in whom follicular unit extraction works very well, without causing transection, and many in whom it doesn't. We are now able to identify those patients in advance by performing a biopsy (FOXtm) test. Patients would be disqualified from the procedure if the test showed that their follicular units could not be removed without causing an unacceptable rate of transection. Patients who have significant baldness and want their restoration completed in 1-2 sessions are also not good candidates since we are only performing cases of up to 500-600 grafts at the present time.

HairlossTalk: Will that number go up as you improve the technique?

Dr. Rassman: With time, we may find that the numbers will climb just as it did when we pioneered the megasessions with Follicular Unit Transplantation. At this time we are confident in performing 500 to 600 during each procedure on those individuals who test FOXtm positive. In the future it is possible we may be able to perform 1,000 or more at a time.

HairlossTalk: Typical transplant procedures, though they make use of an incision in the scalp, tend to enable a much larger number of follicles for transplantation. Other than the lack of incision, why is this procedure unique?

Dr. Rassman: The lack of an incision allows people to engage in physical activities sooner and to wear their hair very short on the back and sides. In Follicular Unit Transplantation, the normal completion of 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-hair units are used in a proportion that exactly reflects the way hair grows in nature. Technically, in FUE we can select out only the larger follicular units from the donor area and use only those in a transplant. This might be particularly usefully in transplantation small areas such as in preparing scars or other local defects.

FUE is different in that the procedure can be repeated every 2 weeks, as healing is relatively complete at that point in time. I performed the procedure on a fellow three times, each procedure separated by 2-3 weeks. Approximately 500 grafts were performed in each procedure. Typical transplant procedures can only be done at the very most, once every 6 - 10 months due to the healing required in the donor area. There are exceptions to this rule, which are not easy to outline in a simple interview such as this. In FUE, we can continue this procedure every 2 weeks until the patient achieves the numbers he needs. I see no reason that 5,000 grafts cannot be done, except for the logistics involved. You must remember that these patients have lives of their own, and they must fit the procedure into their schedules. The FUE process would take only slightly longer than a typical transplant for the same number of grafts, but there would be no traditional incision which for individuals who are scar formers or who widen their scars, is a very big plus. The way we're doing it, the follicles are extracted, the skin surrounding the area heals within a day or two, and the patients tell us there is no pain. We have seen no scarring after the procedure. My own son was done 3 months ago and I would challenge anyone to find a scar in the donor area. He even shaved his head two months after the transplant.

Read more about Hair Transplants in our Hair Transplants Section.

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