Hair follicle transplantation on scar tissue.

[BACKGROUND] Hair transplantation is a continuously evolving field. The procedure was originally developed by Dr. Orentreich in 1959, but he applied it only to the androgenic alopecia. Potential applications for hair grafting extend beyond treatment of hair loss.

[METHODS] Our study group consisted of 25 cases of 23 patients. The causes of scar resulting to hair loss were burns, operation, and trauma. The scalp strips or follicular unit extracts were harvested from occipital, posterior auricular, dog-eared scalp, adjacent scalp area, and nuchal area. The recipient sites were scalp, eyebrow, lip, and eyelid.

[RESULTS] The follow-up cases over 6 months after operation were 18 among total 25 cases. The result after hair follicle transplantation was excellent (44.4%), good (38.9%), fair (11.1%), and poor (5.6%).

[CONCLUSIONS] The hair follicle transplantation on the scar tissue is more difficult than grafting on normal tissue because the scar is accompanied by poor blood circulation and stiffness of tissue. The patients with burned scar achieved more favorable result than did others. Incision scars are deeper than burned scars, and their success rates are poor. We should recommend the patients that hair follicle transplantation on the scar may need secondary or more operations for the aesthetically better result.