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History of Surgical Restoration and Medical Treatment for Hair Loss in Men and Women
A Time Line of Hair Loss Treatments from New York Specialist Dr Gary Hitzig
Learn the history of hair loss and baldness treatment for men and women from one of the best leading New York experts. As most are aware of non-medical treatments with Rogaine and Propecia the following details nearly 50 years of surgical hair loss treatments due to male pattern baldness and other causes. For more information about how Dr. Gary Hitzig can assist New York City and Long Island male and female residents; contact or visit his NYC or LI hair loss treatment centers.
1959 - Plugs: The first paper on free
skin graft hair transplantation was published in the United States.
The paper noted that small circular skin grafts removed from a healthy
hair bearing area of the scalp would continue to grow vigorously when
transplanted to a bald area of the scalp. Each graft measured about
1/4 inch across and included 10-20 hair follicles. These were the
"plugs" that were first associated with hair
transplantation.
1970's - Larger Sessions: Refinements
in surgical instrumentation, including hand engines and spacing
templates, allowed the placement of more smaller sized circular grafts
in a single session. The grafts were approximately 1/8 inch across,
and were removed from the donor site one plug at a time.
1980's - Minigrafts and Micrografts:
Hair follicles are now removed in strips from the donor site at the
back of the head, and individual grafts are prepared from the strips.
Dr. Hitzig introduces the running lock stitch for donor site
closure to enhance patient comfort and accomplish a better cosmetic
result in the donor area. Hair grafts become smaller again, in the
form of minigrafts having 3-6 hair follicles, and micrografts having
1-3 hair follicles.
1990's - Micro Mini Graft Hair
Transplant Mega Sessions: The problem with dense packing micro-minigrafts
was in placing hundreds of them close together to achieve acceptable
density. Rather than making small circular holes, many physicians
would make stab wounds called slits, and insert the micrografts into
the slits. In some cases the growth of the scalp tissue would push the
hairs together as they grew out from the slits, making all the hairs
appear as if they were growing from a single hole. This tufted hair
effect, called graft compression, led to single hair micrografts,
which could not be affected by graft compression. More importantly
graft survival was unpredictable due to the amount of graft handling
and trauma as well as limited blood supply to feed thousands of grafts
closely placed together.

Slit
grafts with more than 2 or 3 hairs can be compress and hook
tufted.
Exclusive micro- minigrafts involved
extensive graft preparation and handling, and a tremendous increase in
labor. Even with teams of 8-10 medical assistants working with the
surgeon for 8-10 hours straight on a single patient, only a few
thousand grafts could be placed at one time.
The cosmetic results were natural,
however the density was poor, and the risk of graft failure increased
due to extra handling dense packing of the individual grafts.
Sometimes failure rates of 30-50% were observed, and even under the
best megasessions are difficult to thicken later without damaging even
more of a patient's existing hair.
1993 - Laser Hair Transplants: Laser
hair transplantation showed initial promise at solving the graft
compression problem associated with minigrafts and micrografts. The
laser was used to vaporize a narrow slot in the scalp for the hair
graft. By actually removing tissue, the laser reduced the risk of
graft compression, and a more natural result was possible. Advances in
laser technology have since allowed for rapid and precise recipient
site creation, with minimal thermal damage to the surrounding
tissue. The problem with laser transplants is that even with recent
advances in laser technology, the laser seals the blood vessels that
are critical for nourishing the grafts when they are first
transplanted. As a result, laser transplants heal more slowly, and
have unpredictable growth.
1995 - Linear Grafting: Dr Hitzig introduced the Linear Punch, a surgical hand tool
developed specifically to duplicate the shape of a laser slot,
but with the advantage of not compromising the blood flow to the
grafts at the initial healing stage. In addition, the Linear Punch
allows the surgeon greater flexibility in angling the recipient sites
so that the new hairs will lay in the most natural direction. Linear
slot micrografting has the best characteristics of all hair transplant
methods: the natural appearance of laser transplants, the rapid growth
and predictable healing of slit grafts, and density superior to
megasessions, but with less labor and lower costs for the patient.
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A.
The Hitzig Punch removes a tiny 0.5mm wide sliver of bald
tissue, creating a slot incision.
B. The slot incision perfectly accepts
the narrow linear graft. |
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