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  • How Does a Robotic Hair Transplant System Locate and Dissect Follicular Units?
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In doing a robotic hair transplant we take an instrument, it's a little square picture frame like instrument called a tensioner and what that does is it stretches the skin. So it's actually compressed toward a little handle, we place it on the scalp and then it expands and in the expansion it puts traction on the skin and holds it firmly in place. This tensioner also has little tiny dots around the edges that are coated for the robot to visualize. The robot then scans the edges of this picture frame and corporates it into the software. It then comes down with the 3D optical system and visualizes the follicular units and lines the cutting part of the robot perfectly in line with the angle of the hair follicles. It then makes a small incision around the hair follicle. The robot follows a two-step dissection technique and this is actually very important. The first part of the dissection is done by a very tiny sharp round cutting instrument but it only goes into the skin about 1 millimeter, basically just scores the skin. Then a little bit wider instrument goes down around it and that does the rest of the dissection and the purpose of it is the second instrument is a little bit more blunt than the first. And since it's travelling the length of the follicle, the blunt part of it allows it to separate it from its surrounding tissue without causing much injury to the follicles and that's really been the major breakthrough, this blunt dissection phase of the separation of the follicular inner from the surrounding tissue.

How Does a Robotic Hair Transplant System Locate and Dissect Follicular Units?

Dr. Robert Bernstein explains how the ARTAS Robotic System locates follicular units for dissection.