Hair Transplant Forum International -- Review of Orlando Live Surgery Wkshop
June 15, 2004
ISHRS Hair Transplant Forum International/May/June 2004 Volume 14, Number 3
Co-Editor's Message
William M. Parsley
Orlando Highlights
The 10th Annual Live Surgery Workshop was held in Orlando, March 10-13. Dr. David Perez-Meza has been taking a gradually
more prominent role in orchestrating the meeting, and this year's meeting was one of the best, in spite of a policy change that did not
allow surgeons without a Florida medical license to operate. While we are assured that visiting doctors will again be allowed to
operate next year, the problem was only a minor one this year. Kudos to Dr. Perez-Meza, Dr. Matt Leavitt, Valerie Montalbano, and
the rest of the staff who worked so hard to make this meeting meaningful.
It was interesting to watch Dr. Alan Bauman performing follicular unit extraction (FUE). Of the 7 consecutive grafts that I checked
microscopically, he had only 3 transections out of the 19 hairs present. In those 3, the shafts were transected at mid-hair, so I expect
that the remaining hair shafts would regrow. Dr. Bauman states that he goes by "feel," not millimeters, in determining the depth, and
his technique was quite impressive. Rock-hard tumescence was necessary to obtain good results, and an electrical tumescence
infusion machine seemed to work nicely. It appears that with proper technique the transection rate with FUE can be very acceptable
in the proper candidates. Additionally, Dr. Bauman has solved the problem of buzz-cutting large amounts of the donor area by
punching right thru the hair shafts, thus requiring no trimming at all. This still leaves some major obstacles to overcome
length ofthe procedure and expense of the procedure. Also, thus far, the final results of FUE seem to be less impressive than with strip
procedures, but this may change. Perhaps the ideal situations for the procedure will be for body hair transplants, small procedures,
patients with a history of poor healing, or patients with nearly depleted donor hair. It will be interesting to follow its development.
Without question, progress is being made.