Laser hair transplantation. Tissue effects of laser parameters.

[BACKGROUND] Micro- and minigrafting have become increasingly popular in hair transplantation over the past decade, resulting in larger numbers of grafts per session and lengthy, potentially technically difficult procedures. The advent of very high energy pulsed carbon dioxide lasers as surgical instruments has led to the investigation of their use in hair transplantation, as bloodless surgery with tissue removal by vaporization has obvious advantages as far as surgical speed is concerned.

[METHODS] A prospective study of eight patients comparing conventional micro- and minigrafting using 18- and 14-gauge needle punctures with dilators versus laser-vaporized donor sites with variation of laser parameters was conducted with monthly evaluation of healing and hair growth for 6 months. In addition, an in vitro histological study of laser vaporization recipient sites on excised scalp tissue was conducted to evaluate the residual thermal damage of various laser parameters.

[RESULTS] The conventional micro- and minigrafts healed faster and resulted in better hair growth than the laser vaporization sites. The donor sites were judged to be comparable as far as healing, but more time consuming with the laser. The operative time for the laser recipient sites was 50% of that of the conventional sites.

[CONCLUSIONS] The clinical results of laser hair transplantation are very dependent upon the laser parameters and technique used. Though operative time may be significantly reduced, the end result clinically is dependent on proper choices of pulse parameters and technique.