I had a Kerastem treatment 1 month ago. Here are the highlights:
I went to Geneva Switzerland. The procedure was roughly $8000. I showed up for a consulatation and went in the next day for a procedure. A few interesting points that have not been reported in the media. The doctor states that the efficacy/rate of response is somewhere between 70%-80% and not the higher figures often sited. I saw dozens and dozens of photographs of before and afters. One male subject, in his late 50’s or early 60’s was almost completely bald and he went from nearly a Norwood 5 to a Norwood 3.5. It was an astonishing photograph. However, those results were highly abnormal. Age and the amount of hair you already have on your head are the two largest determinants for success.
They put two small holes in my abdomen to take out the fat via liposuction, one on each side for symmetry’s sake. The amount of fat looks like a lot when it is all out, about a full large glass. Half is then put into some sort of a centrifuge and the stem cells are taken out and then concentrated. The other half is injected into the scalp as fat from the abdomen. When the centrifuge is finished mixing, and the unadulterated fat has been injected, those concentrated stem cells are then injected into the scalp.
The pain is substantial for the next 24-48 hours, both in the scalp and the abdomen. It is not so bad as to be a deterrent. You can fly out in a day or so if you want. I chose to stay a few days to recoup.
I am one month out and I have, as expected, not seen results yet. The earliest results the doctor has reported seeing was 6 weeks from the date of procedure. Most people respond in 3-6 months.
If I do get results I will be posting before and afters here.
Christopher the treatment that you described is NOT exactly what was supposed to happen. The Kerastem treatment is supposed to go like in the diagram of the female silhouette in the below link:
When you open the above link scroll down to the female silhouette and follow the arrows. The arrows move across then downward and then back upward to the top of her head. Firstly, they were supposed to harvest the fat tissue from your hip, not your belly. Secondly, they were not supposed to inject part of the harvested fat into your scalp right from the start. Thirdly, they were NOT supposed to simply centrifuge the harvested fat to separate the adipose derived stem cells out of the fat and then inject the adipose derived stem cells into your scalp. NO.Fourth, They were supposed to separate ALL of the adipose derived stem cells from ALL of the harvested fat and then put ALL of those harvested adipose derived stem cells into a purified fat product called PUREGRAFT to create a final mix and then implant that final mix into your scalp.
If what you’re saying is true they didn’t do it right. This could be why their success rate isn’t as good as other researchers are saying it should be. The clinic maybe took short cuts so they could cut expenses, but instead they should have charged you a little more and did it correctly.
Christopher injecting adipose derived stem cells on their own is not very successful because the injected adipose derived stem cells migrate out of the injected RAPIDLY. They can’t help you if they don’t stay in the target area. That is why those adipose derived stem cells were supposed to be put into the proprietary product called PUREGRAFT. You see, PUREGRAFT is designed to STAY PUT in the target area.
The below 4 steps tells you what was supposed to happen. The below 4 steps are the same as the steps in the female silhouette diagram in the link above.
They harvest fat from the patient’s hip.
They extract adipose derived stem cells from the fat harvested from the patient.
They put the adipose derived stem cells into a purified fat product called PUREGRAFT and this combination forms the final treatment mix.
They implant the final treatment mix (adipose derived stem cells taken from the patient’s own fat and put into a specific product called PUREGRAFT) into the patient’s scalp.
From what you’re saying it looks like they did it wrong. It looks like when they injected your own fat back into you they were trying to use your own fat in place of the PUREGRAFT. But that shouldn’t work as well. The researchers running this treatment through FDA trials are using the PUREGRAFT for a reason Christopher. It looks like the clinic you went to is trying to cut a key corner on you. They were NOT supposed to inject your own fat back into you like that. They were supposed to get all of the adipose derived stem cells from all of you your fat, and then put all of those adipose derived stem cells into a product called PUREGRAFT, which is designed to stay in the target location. They’re corner-cutting could explain why they are having a poorer success rate than other researchers are achieving.
You need to kick up a fuss and you need to report them for cutting corners and not selling you what they are advertising. There are strong consumer laws in Switzerland and if you want to get the treatment done properly you need to scold them big time and you need to report them. We all need for you to make a big issue of this because when a business cuts corners in this manner the success rate can be adversely affected.
Also, can you please put me in touch with the clinic you went to? I want to let them know that I’m angry at them for not giving you what they are advertising.
Christopher look at the female silhouette in the story in the link I’m providing down below. Look what the company is advertising. They’re advertising the following:
They take fat from your hip.
They separate the adipose derived stem cells from ALL of your fat.
They put the adipose derived stem cells into a specific product called PUREGRAFT fat.
They implant that mixture into your scalp.
This is not what you said happened. If this isn’t what happened then you did not get what is advertised and you should be very upset about that. It looks to me like they’re trying to cut a corner. It looks like they injected that first batch of unpurified fat into your scalp in the hope that it would do the same thing that the Puregraft fat does but it won’t. The researchers running this treatment through FDA clinical trials are using PUREGRAFT for a reason. And they aren’t injecting the fat before the adipose derived stem cells. They’re putting the adipose derived stem cells into the PUREGRAFT and then implanting both into the scalp at the same time. There’s a reason why they’re doing it this way in the FDA clinical trials. And the way that the clinic you went to advertises the product is the same as the way the researchers are doing it in the clinical trials. The thing is that if they did what you say then they did it different from the way they are advertising and they did it different from the FDA clinical trials.
In other words, if you’re right about what happened then you did NOT get Kerastem.
Anyway, check out the treatment on the female silhouette in this article:
I don’t have a lot of time, but I will address your points, most of which seem valid.
Dr. Schlaudraff, the doctor that performed the procedure, was involved in the trials and is listed in research papers related to Kerastem.
It does not matter if the stem cells are taken from the hip or the stomach. They will perform as they should.
You are correct, the machine is not a centrifuge. I did not want to get into a technical description of the device. The point is that it concentrates the stem cells.
You are also correct that the biggest concern is the migration of stem cells out of the scalp in a rapid fashion. This is why one half of the fat was injected back to the scalp, as a means of further attempting to keep the stem cells in place. Keep in mind this fat also has active stem cells as well. I was told that this is the latest thinking on the procedure, not a mistake. The doctor is highly qualified. The outcome remains to be seen.
[quote][postedby]Originally Posted by Christopher1[/postedby]
I don’t have a lot of time, but I will address your points, most of which seem valid.
Dr. Schlaudraff, the doctor that performed the procedure, was involved in the trials and is listed in research papers related to Kerastem.
It does not matter if the stem cells are taken from the hip or the stomach. They will perform as they should.
You are correct, the machine is not a centrifuge. I did not want to get into a technical description of the device. The point is that it concentrates the stem cells.
You are also correct that the biggest concern is the migration of stem cells out of the scalp in a rapid fashion. This is why one half of the fat was injected back to the scalp, as a means of further attempting to keep the stem cells in place. Keep in mind this fat also has active stem cells as well. I was told that this is the latest thinking on the procedure, not a mistake. The doctor is highly qualified. The outcome remains to be seen.[/quote]
Christopher you’re correct. I was in error. I read that Kerastem involves PUREGRAFT and I mistakenly thought PUREGRAFT is a synthetic fat product. It is NOT. PUREGRAFT is the filtration system that they run the patient’s fat through. I was wrong when I said they aren’t supposed to inject your own fat back into you. They are DEFINITELY supposed to inject your own fat back into you AFTER they run it through the PUREGRAFT filtration system. It looks like they did what they were supposed to do when they treated you. Please keep us updated.
Just wondering how effective Kerastem will be for those of us who have been balding for a long time (for me about 20 years). On the link you posted from the Belgravia, London clinic, they specifically say it’s for “early” hair loss. So obviously, this is not anything approaching a “cure”, but merely a treatment to slow or mitigate hair loss which will probably help only people with recent onset MPB or female pattern baldness. I don’t think it’s going to have much of a cosmetic effect on people who are Norwood 3 or greater.
Christopher, once you’ve assessed your results, will you show us before and after photos?
[quote][postedby]Originally Posted by roger_that[/postedby]
Just wondering how effective Kerastem will be for those of us who have been balding for a long time (for me about 20 years). On the link you posted from the Belgravia, London clinic, they specifically say it’s for “early” hair loss. So obviously, this is not anything approaching a “cure”, but merely a treatment to slow or mitigate hair loss which will probably help only people with recent onset MPB or female pattern baldness. I don’t think it’s going to have much of a cosmetic effect on people who are Norwood 3 or greater.[/quote]
Same situation here Roger. But could they perhaps implant more fat for guys like us or could they do repeat treatments for guys like us?
I’m not sure the effect will be additive to a great degree.
I think the main problem here is ADSCs are definitely healthy for the hair follicles, but they are NOT hair follicle stem cells. ADSCs do have a positive effect of promoting hair growth and keeping the follicles healthy, but they don’t have a huge effect of reviving long-dormant follicles.
The chemical signals and growth factors emitted by ADSCs will not be exactly the same profile as for HF stem cells. It may be somewhat similar, but it’s not exactly on target.
Plus the ADSCs don’t integrate with the follicle at the bulge, and become part of the follicle, as far as I know. I think their signalling to the follicle will not be nearly as strong as that of regular HF stem cells and progenitor cells.
Yes. Some of the younger guys with “mild” hair loss looked liked they got almost all of their hair back. And without question, in some patients, there were large amounts of hairgrowth on the hairline where it had almost completely fallen out.
[quote][postedby]Originally Posted by Christopher1[/postedby]
Yes. Some of the younger guys with “mild” hair loss looked liked they got almost all of their hair back. And without question, in some patients, there were large amounts of hairgrowth on the hairline where it had almost completely fallen out.[/quote]
Christopher1 – are there any photos available of these results?
The pictures are on the Dr.'s computer. You are welcome to contact him to see if he would be willing or able to release some or all of them but, I would strongly assume they are property of Kerastem.
There were about 50 before and afters, maybe more. To be clear, while some people got incredible results, others looked like they received none. Further, some of those that looked like they had no results were young and had a relatively limited amount of hair loss. So it’s a dice roll.
After having brought you some bad news about my Jak inhibitor trial, I finally have some good news for you. It’s not great, but it’s very good.
My hair has stopped falling out. It stopped about three weeks ago, which was a bit over 2 months after my Kerastem treatment. How do I know it stopped falling out? Every day since my hair loss began over 15 years ago, I have taken water from the faucet and run it through my hair to style it. And every day for 15 years, with rare exceptions, my hands look like Chewbacca paws when I am finished doing this. Now nothing comes out when I wet my hair and run my hands through it. I find no hairs on my pillow case in the morning. For now it appears as if my hair loss has stopped.
I have not seen any regrowth. Who knows if it will come? Who knows if this will last either. For now, even if I didn’t get regrowth, I would be very pleased if I was able to go few more years without hair loss, until better treatments come out.
I will let you know if my condition changes for the better or worse when more time has elapsed.
This is an advertising site for paid
advertisers to showcase successful hair restoration results only. It is not the
mandate of this site to engage in the discussion of failed, unsuccessful
procedures, lawsuits, litigations, refunds or complaint cases. Surgical hair
restoration procedures carry risks. Please do thorough research, consult your
own physician and investigate a doctor's background carefully before making a
decision. By proceeding to use our site, you agree to abide by our Terms of Use & Privacy Policy at http://hairsite.com/terms-of-use/ where you can also find a list of HairSite's sponsoring physicians.