HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

[CITness]

The IHTI surgical staff averaged 4.1 hairs per follicular unit extracted today. The average with strip surgery is 2.0 hairs per follicular unit and with CIT it is 2.7 hairs per follicular unit. CIT is the Cole Isolation Technique. In CIT, the extracted grafts are harvested only after each extraction. The grafts are then placed where needed on the scalp to achieve the most natural result.

The reason that you see fewer hairs with strip surgery is that the transaction rate is higher and the technicians usually fractionate larger follicular units into multiple small grafts so that you eventually pay two and three times for one follicular unit.

For example,

Consider a Doctor incises a 2000 graft strip on a patient who is a 27 year old norwood 3 bound to be a class 5. Now consider the transection involving several units just to make the incision itself not to mention the hairs destroyed while the technicians cut that same strip of tissue for placement. Patients who may progress into higher classes of hair loss must seriously consider this loss (transection) of hairs as disposal of valuable resource.

[drcole]

CIT allows for more hair per graft because one can cherry pick the grafts that contain the most hairs. This allows for more value especially when smaller numbers of grafts are required. This is often why CIT produces better coverage with fewer grafts than a strip procedure can produce.