Dr Gho’s Recently Published Partial Follicular Unit Extraction Study
What are your thoughts on Dr. Gho’s partial extraction stuff? There’s a new study in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment:
Link: Donor hair follicle preservation by partial follicular unit extraction.
We are aware of this and I believe I’ve commented on partial unit extraction before. Similar work has been done by others with very different results, so I am a little skeptical. First of all, only five individuals were used in the study and between 100-150 grafts were harvested. The results look very promising, but I do not understand how you can achieve a success rate over 100% (104.1%) like is mentioned in the results.
It is also difficult to understand how one could keep track of where the 100 to 150 grafts were harvested from to see if they regrew hair. Think about this. Unless you make a clear mark (like a circular tattoo) around where you harvested the grafts, how can you say the hairs grew back? In the end, with all due respect to Dr Gho, I remain a bit of a skeptic.
With regards to the over 100% numbers it has be suggested that in counting hairs prior to extraction, more may have been in telogen than on the recount after the harvest and donor healing. Thus more hairs in the donor area. Is this possible?
Hopefully the hair restoration community can come to a conclusion on the legitimacy of this technique because it could be the next great step if the results can be replicated.
Professional football player Wesley Sneijder is reported to have had the procedure done in December 2010 with Dr. Gho. Any further thoughts on this procedure Dr. Rassman? It seems Dr. Cooley is making some progress himself in this field. Could Dr. Gho simply just be ahead of the game or is that wishful thinking on my part? I assume it may simply be too early to tell one way or another.
Finally do you know of any doctors who have taken Dr. Gho up on his offer of sharing his technique?