Transplantation Operations
Transplantation is the general name given to the transplantation of the grafts in the donor area to the area suitable for transplantation. The transfer process involves grafts, which are tissue units formed by the gathering of hair follicles. During the transplantation process, these grafts are separated as single and multiple. The separated grafts are transplanted to the appropriate area. No shedding occurs except for the globally recognized 10% loss rate.
Transplantation can be applied to 6 different areas: Hair Transplantation, Beard and Mustache Transplantation, Eyebrow Transplantation, Sideburn Transplantation and Scar Tissue Transplantation.
WHO SHOULD NOT UNDERGO THE TRANSPLANT PROCEDURE?
People with Serious Health Complications;
Transplantation is not performed for people with serious health problems. Especially if the person has diseases such as heart, liver, or kidney failure, transplantation procedures are not performed. Experts who will perform the transplantation process control the process with various tests and examinations before the procedure for people with serious health complications. Before the transplantation procedure for heart and diabetes patients, specialists must perform various tests together with blood tests and must obtain a letter of approval from the specialist doctor of the disease.
People Who React to Anesthesia:
Regardless of the technique used in transplantation applications, local anesthesia is usually applied. General anesthesia may be preferred in such patients. However, if the patient to be transplanted reacts to general anesthesia, the transplantation procedure is definitely not performed. If the reaction to anesthesia is known, the specialist should be informed about this. None of the transplantation procedures should be applied not only to people who react to anesthesia, but also to people who are not allowed to receive anesthesia in any way.
People with Bloodborne Diseases;
Among the people who will undergo transplantation procedures, there are those with bloodborne diseases. People with hepatitis B disease can be transplanted by taking the necessary precautions. Special attention should be given to ensuring that the transplantation procedure for people in this disease group is conducted in a sterile and specially arranged environment. However, people with diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C should absolutely not undergo transplantation procedures. Apart from these, any of the transplantation applications are absolutely not applied to people who carry diseases transmitted by blood.
People with Hemophilia:
Hemophilia is a hereditary disease that manifests itself with bleeding that does not stop or stops late as a result of the blood not clotting properly. Since there will be bleeding in the transplantation process, blood clotting ensures the adhesion of the grafts and the healing time after the procedure. Since blood clotting is a major factor, hemophilia patients should not be transplanted.
People Who Do Not Have Enough Donor Area:
Transplantation is not applied to people whose donor area is not sufficient. Transplantation should not be performed if the grafts in the donor area are not sufficient. In order for the transplantation to give the desired result and be successful, the donor area must support the area to be transplanted.
If the grafts in the donor area are not of suitable quality or not enough, grafts can be obtained from certain other parts of the body (beard, chest, arm and leg) and transplantation can be performed.
How Does the Planting Process Work?
The person who will have the transplantation is first examined by a specialist and if he/she is suitable for transplantation, the day of the procedure is determined. Blood tests are done. As of the planned date, there are some conditions that the patient must comply with.
These conditions are as follows;
If there is alcohol or drug use, it should be stopped at least 7 days before the procedure date.
If smoking, it should be reduced 7 days before the date of the procedure and if possible not smoked at all.
Aspirin, ginseng, medicines with blood thinning effects such as vitamin B and E, multivitamins and herbal supplements, herbal teas, cherries and tropical fruits should be discontinued at least 7-10 days before the date of the procedure.
Before the day of the procedure, if there is any discomfort or medication used, the specialist staff or physician should be informed about this issue.
At least 8 hours of sleep should be taken 1 day before the day of the procedure.
It is strongly recommended to take a shower 1 day before or on the morning of the day of the procedure. Because after the procedure, the procedure area should not be in contact with water for 3 days.
Before the procedure, have a breakfast with high nutritional value products (walnuts, figs, boiled eggs, whole wheat bread...)
If it is rainy on the procedure day, an umbrella should be brought. The hood of your clothes or coat should not be used under any circumstances.
What Should Be Considered After Transplantation?
After the transplantation process is over, general controls of the patient are performed. After the controls, the patient is told what to pay attention to;
Do not do any work, go to work and rest for 2 days after the procedure. It is recommended to rest as much as possible (preferably all day) in a supine position, which will prevent swelling in the facial area. If swelling occurs after 2 days, it will disappear in 3-4 days, do not worry. The swelling does not cause any harm in terms of health, it may only disturb you in terms of appearance.
Washing is required on the 3rd day after the procedure.
The scabs in the transplanted area will clean up within 7 days. After 10 days, the transplanted grafts will begin to shed, and the transplanted grafts will start to grow from the 3rd month onward. Full growth of the grafts may take up to 1 year in the frontal area and 1.5 years in the crown area.
Care should be taken not to hit the transplanted area for the first 1 week. If the transplanted area is hit or rubbed somewhere, it causes the roots to come out. Special care should be taken when getting in and out of the car.
Immediately after the procedure, if you are going on a journey, you should have a travel pillow with a neck strap. You should never travel by leaning your head against the window or anywhere else. If you are traveling by plane, it is recommended to rest for 1 day.
You should not drink alcohol for 1 week after the procedure as antibiotics and/or painkillers may be used. In case of need, the medications given should be used regularly as described.
Sexual intercourse should be avoided for 1 week after the procedure.
For 1 week after the procedure, avoid strenuous activities that could cause sweating, such as heavy work, cardio, or even light exercise like walking.
Clothes such as front opening shirts and cardigans should be worn for 1 week after the procedure, clothes with narrow collars or turtlenecks should not be worn.
For the first week, sleep in a supine position. If transplantation was done in the crown area, support the neck area with a travel pillow or a rolled towel to prevent the transplanted hairs in the crown area from rubbing against the pillow.
The first washing procedure must be performed by specialized personnel in our polyclinic.
Cleaning will be done in the clinic 1 week after transplantation. (It is not mandatory for the cleaning to take place in the clinic. You can request a cleaning video from the specialist and perform the procedure at home with the help of another person, following the instructions).
Before coming for the cleaning procedure, lotion should be applied every hour for 8 hours, starting 8 hours before the appointment, without cleaning off the previous lotion before reapplying. After the last lotion application at the 8th hour, if the transplanted area is the scalp, it should be wrapped with stretch film, and then the cleaning procedure should be carried out at the clinic.
After the 7th day, the transplanted area should be washed by gently massaging with the fingertips.
Do not enter sauna, steam room, Turkish bath or solarium for 3 months.
Do not stay under the sun for long periods or sunbathe for tanning purposes for 1 month.
Avoid exposure to weather conditions such as rain and hail for 15 days. (If it is winter, make sure to always carry an umbrella.)
Avoid heavy sports such as bodybuilding, volleyball, basketball, etc., for 1 month, and refrain from martial arts for 3 months.
Football should not be played for 1 month and the ball should not be hit with the head for 3 months.
The transplanted area should only be trimmed with scissors for 1 year. The donor area can be trimmed with a machine.
The transplanted area should not be dyed for the first 6 months.
Any burning sensation or pain in the donor area will gradually decrease and disappear completely within 1 to 3 weeks.
A hat should never be worn for long periods, as it will deprive the hair roots of air and harm hair health.
Follow-up checks at the clinic should be done every 3 months for 1 year after the procedure. If follow-up visits are not possible, photos should be taken and sent for evaluation to monitor the progress.
If you encounter any problems or have any questions after the transplantation procedure, you should always consult the specialist staff at the institution where you underwent the procedure. A person who is not knowledgeable about the procedure could misguide you and offer suggestions that could negatively affect your results.
STAGES OF THE TRANSPLANTATION PROCESS ;
Anesthesia process
Donor extraction process
Channel opening process
Donor transplantation (Implantation) process
ANESTHESIA PROCEDURE
The area from which the productive grafts will be taken and the area where the transfer will be made are first numbed with a local anesthesia method. This is applied via injection, and apart from the slight pain felt when the needle touches the skin, nothing else is felt. This numbing process is done with micro-needles to prepare the area for the extraction process.
DONOR EXTRACTION PROCESS
The area genetically coded not to shed hair, and which has undergone the anesthesia process, is individually identified using micro motors with tips suitable for the hair structure, and the identified grafts are collected with the help of forceps. The donor extraction process can be applied to long hair as well.However, since it is a longer procedure in terms of process and comfort, shaving the hair will shorten the procedure time and minimizes the risk of damage. The area to be used as a donor can be taken with support from the beard or chest if the grafts in the nape area are not sufficient. The collected grafts are kept in the prepared waiting solutions and at appropriate cold temperatures. The waiting time of the grafts outside is determined according to the structure of the solution. These solutions do not impair the structure and properties of the graft. Grafts should be transplanted within maximum 4 hours after collection.
CHANNEL OPENING PROCESS
In the transplantation process, there are 4 systems that have been developed and widely used today to determine the location of the donors (canal opening). These are
- Slit : The method widely used in our country and in the world is the Slit Technique. The thin cutters used to open the channels are called Slit. The grafts are transplanted into the channels prepared with a thin straight incision made in the transplantation area according to the length, thinness and length of the tissue in the area to be transplanted. Since the cutters in the Slit technique are not thick cutters, the frequency, angle and planting direction in the area to be transplanted can be easily adjusted. The cutters used in the slit method are steel. These cutters are used with forceps and slit holders.
- Sapphire: Opening channels with a sapphire tip is not a technique but an innovation applied during the channel opening process. The application stage creates small incisions for placing the grafts in the transplantation area. However, the tips called sapphire are made of a valuable, shatterproof material similar to glass and are standardized. This material minimizes scabbing and allows for faster healing.
- DHI: This method can be directly referred to as hair transplantation. In this method, after determining tips suitable for the hair structure and tissue, the hair follicles placed in medical pens called Choi Implanters are transplanted without needing to open channels. The DHI process can be performed on areas that are completely bald as well as areas with minimal hair loss or thinning, even without shaving. In this procedure, round tips similar to needle tips are used. All of the pens used can be easily adjusted according to the length and shortness of the tissue thanks to the mechanism inside. The healing process may vary from person to person. The scabs in the transplanted area can be removed within a maximum of 7 days. In the DHI procedure, using different tips for single grafts and different tips for multiple grafts according to the graft structure increases the comfort and accelerates the duration of the procedure.
- Perkutan : This method is a channel-opening method using tips similar to needle tips. In the Perkutan method, the donor area can be chosen from hair, beard, or chest hair roots. The transplantation area can be hair, beard, mustache or eyebrow area. In the Perkutan method, the channels are not in the form of incisions as in the sapphire or slit method, but rather rounded like the tips used in the DHI method.
Whether the area is hairy or balding does not affect the quality of the procedure, but the transplantation area should be shaved to ensure that the channels and hair are tighter.
HYBRID TRANSPLANTATION PROCESS
Determining the preferred methods for transplantation requires expertise, experience and knowledge. Nowadays, the person who will have transplantation goes to the clinics by saying that he wants to have whichever method attracts more attention in his social media researches, but the method to be preferred should be determined by the expert personnel. These methods can be applied separately or in a single operation by using methods suitable for the transplantation area. If it is stated that different methods should be performed instead of a single method in an operation, the whole of these procedures is called hybrid, that is, mixed procedure.
DONOR TRANSPLANTATION
It is the process of transplanting the grafts into the channels opened after the grafts are taken under local anesthesia. The hairline is a personalized anatomical line. Before this procedure, the forehead line, beard line, sideburn line and eyebrow line are drawn by the specialist together with the patient with a special drawing pen, taking into account the facial structure of the patient. If the Slit or Sapphire method is to be used, after the channel opening phase, which takes about 1 hour, is completed, the grafts are placed into the channels with appropriate pliers without damaging them. If the DHI method is to be used, the grafts placed in DHI pens immediately after the anesthesia phase are transferred to the transplantation areas determined by the specialist with DHI pens without opening the canals. On average, the transplantation process takes about 4 hours. Donor transplantation is the last stage of transplantation. After this procedure, general controls of the patient are performed and the procedure is terminated. With this procedure, the transplantation takes approximately 6 to 8 hours. The procedure time may vary depending on the root structure, anesthesia stage and number of grafts.
