FUT - Follicular Unit Transplantation
In the FUT hair transplant method, Dr. Nel will remove a strip of tissue from the donor area, as opposed to harvesting individual grafts one at a time as with FUE.
The patient’s scalp is anaesthetised and the strip of tissue is taken from the donor area at the back of the head (safe donor area), where the hair grows abundantly. Then the Surgeon and the surgical team will carefully dissect the strip, using microscopic dissection techniques, into individual follicular units.
These prepared follicular units are then implanted into the tiny holes the doctor has made in the recipient area.
FUT Technique and Trichophytic ClosureWhen Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) is performed, it leaves a linear scar in the area the surgeon removed the strip of tissue.
Up to recently this was one of patients’ primary concerns with FUT; but Trichophytic Closure is a technique used by the surgeon to make the scar almost invisible.
It’s a technique that leaves a far finer scar than previous techniques and gives a better cosmetic outcome for the patient, especially when they are wearing their hair cut very short after the procedure.
Trichophytic closure involves the surgeon bringing together the edges of the wound, and overlapping them as he sutures them together. He cuts one side of the skin at an oblique angle (bevelling), and then brings the adjacent skin flaps together to close up the wound.
Because of the angle at which the skin has been cut, the skin from both sides of the wound will then overlap.
One piece of scalp tissue now lies underneath the other one, and within that skin lie hair follicles which then slowly grow through the tissue, effectively concealing the scar as it becomes integrated into the hair.
