The Bangkok Hair Restoration Clinic

Hair loss is progressive, which means there is a limited supply of hair in the donor area to distribute to the area of baldness. It is therefore important that only experienced and qualified hair surgeons harvest and cut the grafts to ensure minimal waste. According to medical literature, most surgeons today use blind techniques for quick donor harvesting, which can result in significant follicular damage (from 5 to 37%). These damaged hair follicles usually have a low growth rate, depending on the level of transection, and if they do grow they produce deformed and miniaturized hair.

Transection of a follicle occurs when a portion is cut along its body and the viability of the follicle is jeopardized. A completely transected follicle will not grow after it is implanted.

In 1997, Dr. Damkerng Pathomvanich was the first to develop the open technique for donor harvesting, which results in a very low transection rate of less than 2%.

This technique has been published in the Journal of Dermatologic Surgery (April 2000) and Hair Forum International (October 1998), and carries the lowest transection percentage of any reported grafting method.

It results in minimal wastage, allowing for more grafts to be available for transplantation and minimal donor area scarring. Since this pioneering discovery, the method has been continuously refined and enhanced to further decrease follicular transection rates.

During the procedure, the donor area is closed with running absorbable stitches and retention stitches. The addition of retention sutures enables the surgeon to close bleeding and follicular transection. Another significant advantage is the almost undetectable post-op scarring in the majority of our patients.

	Close Technique
	Open Technique

The donor strip is then slivered over a tray specially designed to stabilize each strip into narrow segments. Each strip is also partially immersed in a saline solution to prevent desiccation, and a high-powered loupe is used to prevent transection even further. The slivered strips are then further dissected under binocular stereoscopic microscopes into follicular unit grafts.

FOLLICULAR UNIT TRANSPLANTATION

Hairline design is both a science and an art. Prior to the procedure, your physician will discuss the process with you before drawing your new hair line to match your face. Oral sedatives are provided to make sure you are relaxed and calm before the injection of the local anesthetic, after which tiny lateral or coronal slits will be made at the balding area. These slits are oriented according to the direction and angle of the existing hair and arranged irregularly at the hairline to achieve the most natural look.

At the Bangkok Hair Restoration Center we perform only follicular unit transplantation, which means that we only transplant grafts comprised of follicular units. Follicular units are the hair groupings that occur naturally in the human scalp and each may contain 1-4 hairs. The team is meticulous in their handling and insertion of grafts into the slits. The follicular grafts are contained in special ring holders design by the clinic to prevent desiccation and help the surgeon select the appropriate graft size for insertion. This creates a natural hairline because it enables the physician to selectively use thin 1-hair grafts exclusively in the front and coarse 2-3 hair grafts in the back.

The clinic utilizes dense to ultra-dense packing, mega-session and all-follicular-unit grafts.

AT HOT SPRING, ARKANSAS IN 1991	BARCELONA SPAIN IN 1998
Hongkong WITH DR. LAWRANCE FIELD	MIAMI FLORIDA WITH DR.DOW STOUGH IN 2000

AT DR. WONG'S OFFICE VANCOUVER IN 2004	DR. PATHOMVANICH WITH DR. IMAGAWA AT VANCOUVER IN 2004	ANNUAL MEETING OF ISHRS AT SAN FRANCISCO