Optimizing Hair Transplant Outcomes with Medical Therapies

Announcer:
You’re listening to DermConsult on ReachMD. On this episode, we’ll hear from Dr. Marc Avram, who’s a dermatologist, hair loss and transplant specialist, and Clinical Professor of Dermatology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He’ll be explaining the role of medical therapy in hair transplants. Here’s Dr. Avram now.

Dr.Avram:
Hair transplants are natural. They've been natural for decades, and we're able to restore hair for men and women, where they've lost it. However, it doesn't stop the underlying problem that led to the transplant. So, it's critical that we have successful medical therapy to help maintain the hair that still remains on our patients.

We've had a huge change in therapies we can offer patients. We have medical therapies, such as topical and oral minoxidil and topical and oral finasteride. We have regenerative therapies like PRP. And we use lasers now—at-home lasers and in-office, high powered lasers—that are all directed toward patients after surgery in order to optimize the long-term density. We want the future loss to be as close to zero as possible so a patient can have the maximum amount of hair. We have so many wonderful options that we can put our patients on to give them the maximum long-term hair.

The point to success in treating hair loss is realistic expectations about how long it will take for the medications to work. Often, people will come in for transplant surgeries, and they'll go through their medical treatments that they tried, and unfortunately, it's incomplete because they only use them for a month or two.

So, a critical piece of information to convey to patients before beginning a medical therapy for male or female pattern hair loss is to say it will take a minimum of six months—more like eight to 10 months—for any medical therapy to be judged for success or failure. Explain that this is the biology of the follicles; hair grows slowly. That is a critical point to convey to patients before they begin therapy.

Announcer Close
That was Dr. Marc Avram discussing how we can integrate medical therapy into care for patients receiving hair transplants. To access this and other episodes in our series, visit DermConsult on ReachMD. com, where you can Be Part of the Knowledge. Thanks for listening!