Scars from Secondary Hair Transplant Surgery?
Q:
Dear Dr. Mohebi,
I had a couple of hair transplant surgeries (FUT) in the past (about 12 years ago), and would like to do another surgery now. I have a question regarding the scar line in the back of my head. I obviously have a line now, but what I need to know is if you can use my current scar line as a part of your transplanted hair area, or if you would create a new scar line if I do another surgery? In other words, does a patient like me (who had surgeries before) end up with a new scar line, or does the new line overlap and cover the old line?
A:
Thanks for your question. The old linear hair transplant donor scar should be included in the new strip. That means you should end up with only one scar after your repeat hair transplants. We also perform trichophytic closure whenever we can in strip hair transplant surgeries to help hair grow inside the donor scar. This method allows some hair appear inside the final scar and make the final donor scar blend in with the surrounding skin when the scars matures. If your previous hair transplants were done many years in the past, it is likely that you have not received trichophytic closure. That means the final scar could be even improved comparing to what you currently have. Obviously, there are more individual factors involved in the process of wound healing and scar formation and we cannot always predict the final outcome. However we attempt to minimize the visibility of the hair transplant scar in repeat hair restorations whenever possible.
