FUE – Stitchless Method

Follicle Unit Extraction or as it’s called FUE method is quite popular and demanding among the patients.

This method is special because grafts are taken separately from the donor area (back of head) with a special, 0.6-0.9 mm diameter, miniature tool – punch.

Nowadays many people consider FUE as the newest technology, though is has 30 years of development history.

In 1988 FUE procedure was first presented to society by a Japanese doctor Masumi Inaba, who used 1mm needle for follicle extraction. This tool was very important to develop FUE method. Later, doctor Woods used the same technique in Australia (1989).

Rosman and Berstein further developed Dr. Inaba’s technique in America. They offered a new approach to this issue, which included extracting follicle units of 1-3 hair ends – grafts (not separately each one) from donor area (back and side parts of head) using a small, 1mm diameter punch.

In 1995 Dr. William Rosman, Robert Bernstein, Voitsekh Shanievski and Alan J. Halperini publish the first publication regarding follicle transplantation.

So, the technique provided by Rosman and Bernstein is used nowadays and it is known as FUE (Follicle Unit Extraction) method.

The only thing that distinguishes FUE from Strip method is donor hair acquiring technique. In that case no incisions or stitches are made on the back of head. That’s why FUE method is also called “stitchless” and “non-surgical” method.

The rest stages of these two methods (FUE and Strip) are identical. Both methods use micro graft transplantation, which include 1-3 hairs and that’s why both result in completely natural aesthetic results.

FUE Transplantation Stages:

1. Extracting donor follicle grafts from donor area.
2. Forming micro holes on recipient area (in case of using implanter pens, this stage doesn’t exist. Stinging the skin and implanting grafts simultaneously).
3. Implanting grafts into balding area.

Advantages of FUE Method:

• No incision is made on donor area (back of head). So there is no discomfort caused by the wound, nor the linear scar (so called “smile”).
• It is possible to transplant hair from the other parts of body (chest, back, limbs).
• Precise calculation of the grafts, consisting of a certain number and structure of hairs.
• Using FUE and Strip methods together (so called combined method) enables us to retain sufficient number of grafts even in case of high quality balding or bad scalp mobility in donor area. The combined method enables us to transplant more than 8000 grafts in frames of one surgery.
• Patient can do sport activities from the third day after the surgery, whereas hard physical activities are restricted for at least 2 weeks in case of Strip method.

It should be mentioned that FUE method doesn’t require profound knowledge of surgical skills and it is comparatively easier to perform that Strip method. That’s why all of the new transplantation specialists start their practice in hair transplantation field with this method. However, it is a misleading approach. FUE method needs surgical skills and, more importantly, experience, in order to avoid damaging grafts during the extraction and to maintain the natural appearance of donor area. Consequently, this results in high viability of the transplanted hair and rational usage of donor hairs, in order to avoid wasting them. You know that donor hair is limited in number and each graft is valuable for the patient.

The doctors of DeaMed have 16 years of experience in hair transplantation field using both _ FUE and Strip methods. In addition to this, they have really successful practice of teaching the doctors from around the world with modern technologies.

More than 5000 grafts can be transplanted using FUE method in frames of one surgery in our clinic.