Gigasessions with FUE: How to Avoid Complications

Abstract

The popularity of FUE has greatly increased over the past decade and a half, and it continues to become more and more popular each day. What was once considered an acceptable procedure for only a limited number of cases has now become the standard for severe hair loss cases such as Norwood V and VI. As the attractiveness of FUE solutions intensified, so did the expectations of the patients, forcing surgeons to address the need for increased graft numbers in a limited surgical time frame. Thanks to enhanced technology and techniques, superior instrumentation, as well as the enriched skills of doctors and technicians, gigasessions of 4000 graft transplants or more in one session became possible. However, gigasessions are not without risk and are certainly not applicable to all cases. With gigasessions came a new problem: overharvesting and donor depletion and many cases of this have been documented in recent years. As a result, donor management and preservation have become the main focus of FUE surgeons as they revise FUE state-of-the-art criteria. This article will attempt to identify the difficulties and complications that can be encountered in the planning and execution of FUE in gigasessions and how to avoid them with a special emphasis on donor evaluation and capacity.