I Have Hundreds of Scalp Pimples After a Recent Hair Transplant

If a patient gets hundreds of pustules (pimples) in the recipient area during the one to three month period following an FUT procedure, what is usually the reason for this? Is it due to bacterial infection of the grafts that occurred during the procedure? How does it bode for the eventual outcome of the transplant?

Thanks

There are many answers to this question. They include:

1. The most common cause of pustules are left over remnants of the grafts that remain in the recipient wounds. The remnants include sebaceous glands which produce sebum below the skin. This sebum has no way out, because the hair follicle has not formed, so there are no pores. The result of this is that the sebum becomes infected. This should not produce hundreds of pustules over a month period. Warm soaks are the best way to draw out the pustules.
2. For hundreds of pustules, one might assume that this is folliculitis caused by infection. It would look mean with lots of redness and erythema in the area. This would require antibiotics.
3. A rare cause of this is an autoimmune disease called folliculitis decalvans. Unfortunately, I have had a few of these patients and the infections are hard to control. This condition usually lets up at about the time the hair follicles grow out, once the pores are established. I have had one patient in the past few years where the recipient area remained mean looking for a year.
4. Infection introduced by poor techniques are uncommon, but I know of one medical group that has this as a common complication.

I have not seen a wipe-out of the hair grafts in #1. Some reduced growth may occur in #2. Reduced growth does occur in #3