How much hair can be restored with the ARTAS hair transplant procedure?

The answer is based on several variables, including the size of your head, the density of hair on your scalp, and how much surface area is available to be harvested.  These obviously vary widely person-to-person, so a single number prediction is not relevant.  Certainly, the ARTAS system can extract as many hair follicles as any hand held FUE device (eg: NeoGraft), but the important difference with the ARTAS system is that it is *not* handheld.  It's controlled by a surgeon, not performed by a technician.  Under the guidance and control of a surgeon, the robot performs a special two-stage extraction of each individual follicle is done with micron precision robotically, instead of by a human hand, with all the inherent variability associated with human motion and hand control.What all this means is that the ARTAS robot is more accurate than the human hand could possibly be, and results in higher quality grafts.  Higher quality grafts means more of the follicles grow, which means maximum density and thickness of hair restoration or hair transplant results.

The amount of hair that can be transplanted depends on several factors and varies from person to person.  The area of the head that is used to harvest the follicles is the back and the sides.  These areas do not lose hair in typical androgenetic alopecia.  Thus the size of a person's head and the density of the follicles in the scalp all determine how much hair can be harvested.  In addition, the surface area of the scalp that can be utilized also varies.  For example, if a patient has a lot of loss of hair in the crown, this will limit how far up the back of the head the harvesting can be done.  So obviously this varies greatly from person to person.

Hello, Please see below for some facts about the ARTAS. 
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 another FUE technique that allows for extraction of grafts as follicular units. As such, a session as large as 3-4,000 grafts is theoretically possible, but gets to be challenging with respect to patient comfort and time constraints within one session. In my experience with FUE techniques, more than 2,000 grafts in one session becomes technically demanding for staff and patients alike. We will go up to about 2,500 grafts per session using NeoGraft and occasionally higher.All the best,

6 months ago,Thank you for the question. The ARTAS is a sophisticated robotic machine that makes the harvesting very efficient.  Efficiency decreases procedure time, maximizing the growth of the transplant while minimizing the strain on the patient. The total number harvested by ARTAS robotic FUE, should be close to the numbers obtained with other FUE devices in the appropriate patients.Sincerely,Bernardino Arocha, MD

The same amount of hair can be restored with the artas vs any other FUE procedure in general.  However the Artas has some limitations.  First not every patient is a candidate.  Second, it has a difficult time extracting from the sides of the scalp or areas where the hair grows very superficial.  Third, the punch size used is very big in my opinion (about 1.3mm).  I prefer to do the surgery by hand.

The amount of grafts/coverage will vary between patients. I have done ARTAS cases as big as 3800 FUE grafts in one session ( we do them now over 2 days for patient benefit) so most patients can have nice restoration in just one procedure

It is not about how much hair can be "restored" with the ARTAS procedure.ARTAS procedure is just a method of harvesting the grafts.The ARTAS itself does not "restore" hairs.How much hair can be restored is dependent on your donor hair density and how much donor hair you have available.ARTAS is a tool for harvesting hair using the FUE method.  Thus, in general, you can harvest as much hair using ARTAS as you can with any method of FUE harvesting.

To put it in perspective, the average patient requires 1,500 – 2,000 individual grafts to restore a receding hairline or baldness, which can take several hours and be extremely wearying on human hands.  
The ARTAS system has the ability to perform up to 1,000 grafts per hour – with greater speed and precision than is possible with surgeon’s hands  – delivering results far superior than more traditional methods like the strip method and NeoGraft.

That being said, there are several factors that come into play, including how much hair is available for harvesting, how dense the hair is, and the health of the hair grafts.

My recommendation is to consult with a board certified plastic surgeon in your area that has the necessary skills and experience in hair transplant surgery and can discuss with you all your options and whether you are a good candidate for the ARTAS. 

This answer is best summed up with a supply/demand scenario.  Based on how much hair loss one has and the demand for new hair will determine how much can and should be transplanted.  There are other factors too such as hair color, hair texture, hair thickness, hair curl (if any), etc which will help guild the treatment and graft planning.  Good Luck with your research!  Best, Dr. Rome