Is the ARTAS robotic hair restoration safe?

There are multiple, redundant safety mechanisms on the ARTAS System.  When the patient is in the robot, the patient is rather sedated; I have not seen someone sneeze while sedated, but I suppose it could happen.  The ARTAS is a two-staged punch system, in which the initial punch comes out of the machine at 2 meters per second; you can run faster than that.  This initial punch is sharp, and pierces the first 1.5 mm of the skin.  Or less than 1/16 of an inch.  Then a dull punch comes out and slowly goes deeper, to collect the hair bulbs under the skin.  The safety mechanisms are as follows:1) there are 4 emergency kill switch buttons in reach of the operating surgeon during the procedure2) there is a pressure meter on the punch itself, such that if more than a few Newtons of force is sensed on the punch, the system immediately retracts the punch and the robot arm moves away quickly3) there is a pressure plate on the bottom of the ARTAS robotic head, and the slightest of touches and the machine immediately and rapidly retracts the punch, and the robot arm moves away quickly.During the procedure, a tensioner is applied to the scalp with 4 elastic bands, one on each corner. These are inserted into the grooves on the halo around the patient's head, which gently put pressure on the head to keep it in the padded halo rest.  In the case of someone sneezing while the robot was working, the surgeon would be paying attention to the patient and the irregular breathing right before a sneeze, and just stop the machine.  But if the surgeon misses the cue, or the sneeze happens without warning, and the patient's head bucks, it won't buck that far because of the 4 elastic bands (medical silastic bands, no the elastic bands in your desk drawer) holding the patient's head in the cradle.  If it does go an inch or so, the patient will either trigger the punch pressure sensor, the plate pressure sensor on the bottom, or both, and the machine will immediately withdraw the punch, and the robot head will quickly move away from the patient.

Hello, Yes, the ARTAS robotic hair restoration safe. The original ARTAS was slow and took as long as 1 hour to harvest 50 grafts!!  The original iPhone had a 2 megapixel camera and 4gb storage.Since then, the ARTAS is on its 9th version- called the 9x.  With this version, up to 1500 grafts can be harvested in 1 hour!!  The iPhone X has a 12 megapixel camera and a processing chip faster than a high end Macbook pro did in 2007.The point here is that not all robots are the same- it is a piece of technology that has been updated and improved over time just as your iphone has.  Not all robots are 9x (latest version) and their features will be quite different!!In my experience with FUE, the quality of the graft and the graft yield was low.  I believe most handheld FUE are probably in the 60% quality range rather than the 90% being reported.  With the ARTAS, our graft yield has been high 90s which is a huge difference.The ARTAS can actually make sites which is important in patients seeking higher density.  When the ARTAS makes sites it can avoid other hairs preventing 1 type of shock loss.The ARTAS as described is one important tool in the hair making decision.  In my practice, every patient receives regenerative technique (PRP or growth factors), because it makes the results so much better.  In some cases, miniaturized hairs can actually become terminal.  The quality of the hair is also better in our experience (using quantitative software with trichoscope, our data) Best Dr. Anil Shah

ARTAS is an FUE (follicular unit extraction) hair transplant technique, and as such, has similar risks as other FUE hair transplant methods.
Risks include bleeding, bruising, infection, swelling, pain, numbness, shock loss, need for future surgery, dissatisfaction with results, and scarring (not linear scarring, but pinpoint scarring). Overall, hair restoration procedures are quite safe with low complication rates and high patient satisfaction rates regardless of the harvest technique employed.
All the best,