2023-07-08 06:28:34
01:59 AM
Technological innovation in surgery aims to reduce the size of the instruments used in interventions, to cause less discomfort in patients and reduce risks, in addition to improving results, which is why over the years it has passed. from doing laparotomies to remove appendages, in which the entire belly is cut open, to laparoscopy, where the procedure only requires a 1.5 cm incision. The same has happened in plastic surgery, and interventions such as hair transplants and facial rejuvenation have taken advantage of advances to obtain more natural results with less traumatic recoveries.
In the case of hair transplantation, it even ceased to be a surgical intervention and became a minor procedure that does not require general anesthesia or an operating room, because bleeding is minimal. As explained by Dr. Jenny Correa, DHI’s medical director for Colombia, hair transplantation began 50 years ago, with surgical techniques that involved removing a complete portion of the scalp from the donor area (which is generally the back of the donor area). or side of the head), to go on to graft that skin in the area that suffered from alopecia. “They made separate stitches, a suture and they were like patches of hair,” explains the doctor.
The intervention began to evolve with technology and these “strips” of skin 10 cm wide by 3 cm high from the donor area were removed, to more strategically selected fragments of 2 cm in diameter, after one cm, until it was possible to use instruments with 2.5 mm calibers, the same ones that were used to perform biopsies. Currently, with the most advanced technique, instruments with 0.8 mm calibers are being used, which allow independent follicular units to be removed, which no longer implies large scars or patches of hair, but rather allows strategic “seeding” and much more. esthetic.
“The follicular units that one has in the head are like flowerpots, some have a bush, that is, a hair; another two, three and so on there can be up to seven hairs within a follicular unit. When there were no instruments as small as today, up to four or five follicular units were removed from the donor area and placed in the recipient area, which ended up looking like doll hair. With today’s instruments, independent follicular units can be removed, which allows observing how many hairs the follicular unit has and placing it in the receiving area in such a way that it matches the natural distribution of hair on the head; Well, in the frontal area of the head there are normally follicular units with only one hair, while in the back there are already those with more than two”, says Correa.
Hence, the most modern hair transplants are imperceptible after one year, and are not disabling. “The recovery only implies not using things on the head and not exerting force, it is a procedure that does not disable you at work, it has more of a ‘social disability’, because just after it is done, there are scabs and a minimum of inflammation on the forehead, which disappears after weeks, however, the new hair does take a few months to normalize its cycle,” says Correa.
Another procedure that was favored with the decrease in surgical instruments was facial rejuvenation. The “lift” that used to be done on the forehead and implied a “diadem” scar at the scalp line, can now be done with five one-centimeter incisions, which are much easier to hide thanks to the endoscope, a flexible tube with a light included that is used to make corrections without the need to completely open the area to intervene. Thanks to the endoscope, not only is the large scar avoided, but it is also possible to work on areas of the face where it was not possible before, such as the cheeks, explains surgeon José Palacio, director of the Postgraduate Course in Plastic Surgery at the CES University. In addition, being less invasive procedures, the results are better.
For Palacio, other interventions that improved results with technology were abdominoplasty and liposuction or body contouring surgeries, since now the cannulas to make these contours come with radiofrequency or ultrasound that produce skin retraction and improve its adherence, after intervention, in addition to facilitating the extraction of fat. “The recovery is not less, but the result is better,” he warns.
Despite technological advances, professionals point out that they are nothing if they do not know how to use them properly. For example, in the case of new body contouring equipment, misuse could even cause burns, so it is necessary for the patient to be very attentive to the credentials of the doctors they consult and the quality of their training. In the case of surgical interventions, Palacio recommends checking that the professional is part of the Colombian Society of Plastic Surgery, since the entity certifies that the professional titles come from reliable and qualified institutions.
With procedures such as hair transplantation, it is more difficult, since any professional can take a course in trichology and already feel qualified to do it, but for Dr. Correa, many of these courses do not even include adequate practice, so it is necessary for the Ask the patient about the technique used by professionals and how long they have been practicing it. “40% of the procedures that DHI performs in the world are corrections, sometimes patients end up paying much more to save money, because they have to do a second intervention to correct what they did not do well in the first one,” she says. .
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