Painful Donor Area After Huge FUE Case

hi there

I had a FUE hair transplant. I had two sessions over two days of 3500 hairs. It has now been 2 weeks – the receipient hair looks great and I have had no pain. This is completley the opposite of the donor area. The donor area became so painful that I had to go to hospital for 6 days. The area was felt like it was burning and having constand tingling.

The neurologist advised I had “neuropathic pain”. I am now taking lyrica ( 3 tabs per day) to calm the nerves, neurobion, and tramadol (4oo mg per day) to help ease the pain. I am also using ice packs to calm the entire area.

Can you advise:
1: Have you ever heard/seen this type of reaction before. No where on the net can I find any reports of this type of negative reaction
2: How long can I expect this type of sensitivity from the donor area.

I look forward to your response

3500 hairs or 3500 grafts? I will assume you’re talking about 3500 grafts. If I’m mistaken, let me know…

3500 FUE grafts over a two day surgery seems outside the standard of care today. I would doubt that your donor area would have enough hair to supply that, meaning that the grafts were taken outside the donor area in parts of your scalp that may not be permanent hair. I have heard unofficial reports about some patients where extremely large numbers of FUE grafts were extracted from the back and side of the head with compromises of blood flow, and complications such as bleeding and pain occurring. I’m not sure what was done in the surgery, so I couldn’t tell you how long your donor area will feel pain. Generally, I agree that the approach with the neurologist may be the best way to go until the pain subsides or is well controlled with medication.