Graft Cutters
| NHI does not endorse the use of this instrument. |
Graft cutters consist of a series of parallel blades on which thin strips of donor tissue are placed.
The tissue is then either pushed through the blades with a press, or forced though the blades by hitting it with a mallet (Yes! A mallet is a type of hammer.). The latter technique is called "Implosive Force."
The Boudjema Graft Cutter. |
In order to quickly generate strips that are thin enough to be placed on the parallel blades, a multi-bladed knife, with very close blade spacing (1 to 1.5 mm), is used to harvest the donor tissue. The technique is used to rapidly generate literally hundreds of very small mini-micrografts "cut-to-size" in just a few minutes.
The problems with the above technique should be obvious. To begin with, the multibladed knife is a form of "blind harvesting," which means that the doctor is unable see hair orientation below the skin surface, or control for it, as he makes the incision in the scalp. The multiple-blades compound the problem, causing unacceptable levels of follicular transection and damage. To make matters worse, the width of the blades is almost the same as the natural spacing of follicular units, but since follicular units are distributed randomly, the units are broken up as the knife blades pass "blindly" through the scalp.
This is in direct contrast to Follicular Unit Transplantation in which the donor tissue is taken out as a single, intact strip and every subsequent part of the dissection process is carried under direct stereo-microscopic visualization and control.
In the second step, the thin strips are place on a series of parallel blades, covered with a thin strip of wood (a tongue depressor), and smashed with a mallet into tiny pieces. The resultant grafts contain intact hairs, parts of follicular units and hair fragments.
The doctors who perform this technique are not concerned that follicular units are broken up or that individual hair follicles are damaged. Although the result is an aesthetically inferior transplant that unnecessarily uses up the patient's donor supply, in the name of saving time, they are willing to make these sacrifices.
At NHI, we feel that the doctor should sacrifice his time, rather than the patient's hair. We can never endorse a procedure that compromises quality for the sake of time, or even money. The patient only has a finite amount of hair, and once depleted by wasteful surgical techniques, it is gone forever.
© 2008 New Hair Institute. www.newhair.com |
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