Do You Think My FUE Procedure Was Traumatic?

Hi Dr. Rassman. This blog you got here is wonderful. Thank you.

I recently had an FUE procedure of about 4000 grafts. It took the whole day for the procedure. The first 5 hours weren’t too bad but the last few were terrible because of the constant need for freezing the donor area for the use of extraction.

Some of the later extractions from the donor area hurt me and no matter what I did I still felt the pain and I couldn’t bear it. But being the man that I am I didn’t complain. Rather, I silently cried and couldn’t stop crying for about 15 minutes. I really couldnt control myself. I am not a man who cries over things like that but my body couldnt control the pain and crying was a form of relief to me at that point.

That’s when they stopped everything and gave me about a 30 minute break. Everything went ok after that.

My question is regarding shock loss. Do you consider what I went through trauma? What are the chances that I would get shock loss? And how would you know whether your natural hairs or the grafted hairs have fallen off due to shock loss?

During these 5 days of post op cleaning, I havent really seen anything fall out. Oh and I am taking proscar daily for 6 months now.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions. I really appreciate it.

Regards

YES!!! I absolutely think your FUE procedure was traumatic!

There is no reason why you had to bear the pain and cry. That is absurd! The surgery is done under local anesthesia and you should not have felt any pain and should have had medications on board to help you deal with the length of the procedure and your emotions. It should be a painless surgery. I am shocked at your story and I am sorry that you were so traumatized.

Shock loss, if it occurs, usually starts weeks after the hair transplant procedure and runs its course over a few months. Previously transplanted hair rarely is effected (I have only seen it less than a dozen times), but your surgeon should be aware of what miniaturized hairs you had and did not have. Shock loss usually occurs in the miniaturized hairs and a good hair transplant surgeon should be able to tell you that. As you are only a few days/weeks following a transplant, I would doubt enough time has gone by to evaluate your concerns. This is something you should speak with your doctor about, as it is his/her job.

With respect to 4000 FUE grafts, I also find that very difficult to believe in sheer numbers, since 2000 grafts would be a very high number for any surgeon. Your wound would also have been massive since a 1mm diameter FUE instrument on 4000 FUEs would leave about 19.5 square inches of punched skin. It would be equivalent to the area of a 4 x 5 inch note card. You must’ve either had a very large wound or a very large head. Privately, I would like to know the name of the doctor who claims to be able to do 4000 FUE grafts in one day and I would love to know what the percentage of grafts that were successfully harvested and not damaged.