» »
» » If I read the question correctly you are asking the best way to repair
» a
» » strip scar that has stretched, either to revise, add grafts or possibly
» » englobe; and then the two points, maximising the donor and the cost to
» the
» » patient in monetary terms.
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» No, he is asking if you can get the most number of grafts by doing strip
» firts and then FUE sometime later while repairing any strip stretch
» durring the fue session. This is as oposed to just using FUE.
Apologies, I was not quite sure; this is a debate that I am sure will run and run; As we perform both FUT & FUE and have performed large sessions of both it is maybe easier for us to determine what will give more or less.
I recently posted a large FUE case, 5500 FU over two sessions, the patient now has almost tapped out his FUE donor, maybe a few hundred left but certainly not 1000 plus; and this was with a better than average donor density to start with.
FUE can be misunderstood, just because the surface area may be wider than FUT donor does not mean there are more FU at your disposal to harvest. There are many factors to put into the equation that determine the FUE quota, miniturisation in the donor, FU patterning, size of FU’s, side of face diffused thinning (around the lateral and ear), nape of the neck thinning, head size age and potential for future loss.
If our 5500 FUE patient after had decided to go FUT in the first place he would have reached 5500 possibly in one session and then possibly able to have a smaller FUT after and still opt for FUE after that. His choice was to go FUE and reach max coverage and density as possible; so here is the trade off.
Of course if you wanted to waste the donor and take 50% then you could match that of FUT but you would leave the donor over harvested and thin and the patient with few options if any for the future.
Also talk of 10k genetically grouped FU being available with FUE, if we assume they are not split would be almost impossible taking into consideration a sensible safety zone harvested from, were not over harvested to leave the donor depleted and with no obvious scarring, there was no transection and miniaturisation. You would need to have a flat rate density throughout the donor of 110 FUcm2, a surface of 34cm by 8 cm to harvest around and harvest 35% of the FU per cm2.
This is not to say one is better than the other but when deciding you have to weigh up your options and what may be best for the future; in my experience large FUE results, 5000 plus are limited and not the norm, regardless if you spread over multiple sessions, few people can achieve this without over harvesting. As most people are looking for restoration that would mean it would not be possible with FUE alone and so it must be understood that FUT may well have to be a consideration. This is important because if you are adamant never to go FUT and have a linear scar then you will also have to realise the limitations to FUE, and possible not have a H/T.
, as long as you feel you made the best choice.