The follicular unit extraction (FUE) procedure consists of four steps: the separation of follicular units from the surrounding tissue, the removal of follicular units from the scalp, the creation of recipient sites, and the placement of follicular units into these sites. The first step is performed by the ARTAS robotic hair transplant system – the part of the FUE procedure requiring the greatest precision and that is most subject to human error.
Q: Is robotic FUE different in the number of follicular unit grafts one can extract compared to manual FUE?
A: We can extract (and transplant) the same number of follicular unit grafts robotically as we can manually.
There is generally less transection of the hair follicles with robotic FUE, since the method is more precise. This enables us to obtain follicular units with less trauma to the grafts.
Second, the robot is faster than the human surgeon, and much more consistent since, unlike the human surgeon, it never fatigues and the accuracy is maintained throughout the entire procedure.
Q: I am an African-American man with tight curly hair. Will the FUE robot be able to work on curly hair?
A: Yes, the ARTAS robot for FUE can be adapted for African-American hair when performing follicular unit extraction.
Q: How many different kinds of robotic devices are there?
A: There is only one, the robot called the ARTAS System for FUE, made by Restoration Robotics. The Neograft machine, occasionally confused with a robotic device, is actually a hand-held instrument that is not robotically controlled and lacks image-based tracking.
This Information is brought to you courtesy of Dr. Bishara and The Paragon Plastic Surgery & Med Spa
