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  • How Is a Robot Used During a Hair Transplant Procedure?
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We are often asked in robotic hair transplant, what the robot actually does? First of all, the robot is used in a specific type of hair transplant called follicular unit extraction where we remove follicular units one by one from the back of the scalp. Follicular units are these naturally occurring groups of one to four hairs. Traditionally follicular units have been obtained through a long thin strip. That strip is put under a series of microscopes and the follicular units were dissected out on a dissecting table. That procedure is still a very good procedure and still very popular. An alternative way to remove follicular units is to extract them one by one from the back and sides of the scalp from the donor area. In that procedure, follicular unit extraction really occurs in four steps. The first is separating the follicular unit from the surrounding tissue. The next step is to extract the follicular unit from the scalp. The third step is to make recipient sites with little tiny incisions in the involving area and the fourth step is to put the grafts that were extracted from the back of the scalp into these sites. The robot in follicular unit extraction or robotic FUE involves only that first step, the separation of the follicular unit from the surrounding tissue. That part of the surgery is the most difficult to perform manually because it requires great precision of the cutting tool mashed up with the angle of the follicular unit and the follicular units on the scalp change direction as you go to different parts of the scalp.

How Is a Robot Used During a Hair Transplant Procedure?

Dr. Robert Bernstein discusses how and why a robot is being used with certain hair transplant procedures.