Human beings always focus on physical appearance. Women are still considered the most beautiful when they have long, curly hair. Men with long hair were considered warriors. The same is valid even today, but environmental changes and diet have a lot of impact on hair. Although most people believe that women care more about their appearance, it is essential to note that men experience the same insecurities as women.

Hair loss and thinning hair are a normal part of ageing, but can also occur due to illness or trauma to the scalp. Some people with hair loss choose hair transplants for cosmetic or reconstructive purposes. Hair transplantation aims to restore hair growth in areas of less or no hair at all. Many patients of Hair Transplant Clinic in Hyderabad, ask, are there any complications due to hair transplantation?

Although hair transplantation In Hyderabad is safe, you may experience pain, swelling, and inflammation of the scalp for some time, but remember that these complications are short term. The following article helps you to look at the risks and side effects of hair transplants.

Hair Transplant in Hyderabad:

Hair transplantation is a surgical technique in which new hair follicles are transplanted from areas without hair loss (recipient area) to areas of hair loss (donor area). This is a permanent replacement treatment for hair restoration in baldness.

Complications With Hair transplantation:

General Complications:

Hair transplantation is a very safe outpatient procedure that usually does not involve significant risks or complications. The scalp is punctured, and mild anaesthesia is given. However, as with any surgery, some risks are alwstrongays explained and discussed in detail in your consultation with our qualified Hair transplant surgeons.

Like other medical operations, it is essential to be in good physical health before starting the process to ensure overall safety and overall operating effectiveness. Diet and exercise play a role in your body’s ability to absorb stress and operating tension. Usually, all side effects following a hair transplant are minor and often recover within a few weeks after the procedure. These short-term side effects include:
The following surgical complications often occur with hair transplants:

• Preoperative Complications:
  • Related to anaesthesia: This is mainly due to anxiety about the process. Although allergic reactions rarely occur, we always do allergic or hypersensitive tests on patients in our Hair Sure clinic before the procedure. Some side effects are related to toxicity. This can happen if the process takes too long because more local anaesthesia is needed. At our place, we calculate the dose based on the patient’s weight. In massive sessions, we usually divide the session into two days.
  • Intraoperative complications:  If tumescent fluid containing adrenaline is given, tachycardia can occur. However, in patients with heart failure, this can pose a risk. Therefore, an electrocardiogram and medical assessment of suitability for anaesthesia are indicated for all patients, especially those aged over 40 years. So we always follow to monitor heart rate and blood pressure during the procedure, especially during anaesthesia.

• Post-operative complications:

• • Syncope: This can happen with a long time of operation and suddenly standing from a lying down position. Syncope can also occur due to pain, dehydration and hypoglycemia. Proper analgesia and anaesthesia during surgery alleviate pain-related anxiety. Maintaining adequate hydration and electrolytes and avoiding standing suddenly after prolonged surgery helps reduce the incidence of syncope.
  • Pain: As with any surgery, some degree of discomfort is present during hair transplantation. Regardless of whether it is FUE or FUT, a person will feel mild to almost no pain during the procedure. Proper dosage and local anaesthetic techniques ensure a pleasant surgical experience during the operation. Massage or vibration equipment can be used during the anaesthetic injection. With FUT, discomfort or pain results due to extensive scars, closure of donor wounds under pressure. If the patient reports pain after surgery, painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs are given.
  • Infection: One of the concerns of every surgery is infection. You must be sure that the infection does not arise if you have chosen a reputable clinic or a good and experienced surgeon. However, it rarely can happen that proper hygiene and sterilization techniques are not followed, or if the patient has medical problems such as uncontrolled  diabetes,. At Hairsure Clinic, we follow strict sterilization protocols and use disposable sterile ingredients wherever possible to ensure maximum cleanliness and sterilization. After surgery, we advise all our patients to wash their heads with a mild shampoo as recommended by us and use the medication prescribed in the post-operative recommendations.
  • Temporary swelling or oedema: This is not a complication, but a sequel of the operation. Some patients may experience temporary swelling of the forehead and eyes after the procedure for 3-5 days. The swelling starts in 2-4 days and slowly rises from the forehead to the eyelids and nose. Even though it doesn’t look good, it will disappear by itself in a few days. This may be due to the use of a tumescent solution, which descends due to gravity. The patient can sleep with the head slightly raised for 3-4 days to avoid or reduce swelling. Some surgeons use ice packs or forehead massages for this purpose.
  • Hiccup: Hiccups are a rare but important complication that can last 2-3 days. It can develop due to irritation of the cervical nerves such as C2, C3.
  • Itching: This is a prevalent problem that can arise after a hair transplant in donor and recipient areas. This may be due to the formation of crust on the scalp. Using a salt spray or mild baby or medicated shampoo can help alleviate this problem. If it’s a problem, the use of oral antihistamines can help, and dryness is treated with steroid creams or moisturizing gels. Patients must be careful not to scratch or rub because this can move the graft and also cause infection. Let us see in detail complications after FUE and FUT.

Complications with FUT:

• Open wounds at the donor site: This is very rare because higher scalp blood vessels promote faster-wound healing. However, compromise with blood flow due to factors such as diabetes, high tension closure, simultaneous suture infections, premature suture removal and excessive initial physical activity put patients at higher risk of experiencing unexpected open wounds at the donor site. 
• Wound necrosis: This is a rare phenomenon, is a sign of delayed healing or non-healing. Wound necrosis is caused by ischemia. Technical errors in a closure that create excessive tension along the cut line can cause local microcirculation to collapse, which leads to necrosis. This is a serious complication because the soft tissue is destroyed, and the follicles in the area are permanently damaged. Predisposing factors are before scalp reduction or previous scratches, diabetes, smoking, scarring at the donor site and intraoperative errors such as careless occipital artery cutting.
• Donor hair effluvium:  Often referred to as donor shock loss, this is above and below the incision but is usually temporary, and full recovery is seen over the next 3-4 months. Surgical consequences such as changes in the natural follicle population on scalp, oedema, inflammation and disorders of vascular suture lines are likely causes. Dramatic hair loss can occur with accidental damage to large blood vessels. Approve local wound care with daily cleansing and topical antibiotics as well as post-operative measures to combat inflammation. Topical minoxidil also helps faster recovery.
• Scarring: One of the biggest concerns for transplant patients is the visible scar. In FUT, one observes linear scars on the scalp due to excision  of the strip from the donor area, which is then divided into separate follicular units. This is usually caused by an extensive collection of strips and subsequent closure of the wound under tension or by incorrect placement of the harvested strip. At our Hair Sure Clinic, we always make trichophytic closures so that the scars appear minimal. However, some patients are prone to keloids and may have keloids or stretched or hypertrophic scars at the donor site after surgery. These patients must inform the surgeon about their condition first so that the necessary precautions can be taken.
• Pain: Post-operative pain occurs in most patients after hair transplantation. This pain occurs mainly during FUT hair transplantation because careless deep incision can cause transection of the peripheral nerves when collecting the strip. Healing a distorted nerve can cause permanent scalp pain or regional discomfort. 
• Hematoma: Although rare, deep cuts due to major arterial tears can cause hematomas at the donor site. By limiting the depth of the wound at the donor site and carefully checking the wound mark for signs of damage to the arteries, this complication can be avoided.

Complications with FUE:

Minimal invasion during FUE surgery guarantees fewer complications after FUE. However, complications can happen, as follows:

• Donor Site Depletion: Regardless of whether the assessment is manual, motorized, or robot punches, there is a risk of donor site depletion due to an aggressive and uneven collection of follicles. 
• Scarring: With FUE, small, round, dot-like scars remain during the extraction of individual follicles. They can be like little white dots that fade with time. They hide when new long hair grows in the donor area.
• Post-operative effluvium: Possible postoperative donor hair effluvium can occur after surgery. This condition can occur after a few days to several weeks of operation and shows diffuse hair loss. Most are temporary and in many cases disappear within 3-4 months. The most common causes are excess harvesting or disruption of blood supply.
• Buried grafts:  This is usually the result of two factors. One of them is an inaccurate alignment of dull punches  and the second is the mistake of pushing the partially separated follicles to the deeper layers of the skin that leads to buried graft. They cannot currently be extracted or used.
• Overharvesting: This can cause permanent damage to the donor area, thinning and hair loss. Before starting the extraction process, the safe donor area must be marked, and overharvesting must be avoided. Therefore, it is preferable not to exceed the extraction of more than 1: 4 follicular units.
• Necrosis: Skin necrosis after FUE is not common. Reported necrosis at the donor site after hair restoration with FUE, which causes cicatricial alopecia.
• Cysts: This can occur in the donor area if a blunt punch is used and the follicle is buried in the dermis. Be very careful and remove the punched graft so that no grafts are left behind.
• Keloids: A comprehensive literature search revealed cases of keloids or hypertrophic scarring at the donor site after FUE. 

Complications In Recipient Area :

The following complications are similar in both procedures:

• Chronic folliculitis: Although rare, can occur due to poor hygiene or existing dermatological disorders. This is usually a reaction from a foreign body to poorly dissected hair that has been damaged by shafts. Aggressive treatment with topical and systemic antibiotics and daily cleansing with antibacterial shampoo helps to avoid scarring.
• Poor hair growth: This can be a result of traumatic dissection of hair grafts from collected strip or traumatic placement or graft drying. This can also be the result of poor quality donor hair, such as Vellus hair, which must be identified before surgery. Therefore such patients should not be selected for surgery. Decreased growth can also be caused by factors such as heavy smoking, uncontrolled diabetes or sometimes due to unspecified individual anatomic factors.
• Cyst: This appears as a small swelling of the skin around the transplanted hair follicles, which can become erythematous and painful. They are caused by small grafts that slip under the skin or by grafts sitting on above each other. Treatment consists of cutting the cyst and squeezing its contents, using warm compresses, or sometimes using topical antibiotics.
• Cobblestoning: It occurs when follicular units are implanted in holes or gaps that are too small or implanted at the wrong depth.
• Unnatural or bad hairline: Surgeons must be very careful about surgical designs and techniques. The hairline is a surgeon’s signature. The appearance of hair that is transplanted unnaturally is a complication of poor design and poor surgical performance.

Low Angulation of the hair graft: This is also a common complication. Follicular unit transplants are the gold standard in hair restoration (HRS). Still, the right angle and direction of transplanted hair are very important for results and naturalness after HRS, especially in the forehead area. Therefore, the placement of follicular units with one hair in the first row and follicular units with two hairs is the key to successful results. If planning and surgical techniques are not enough, this can cause complications.

• Swelling: This is not a complication but a surgical consequence. It is normal and can take 3-5 days. Starting from the forehead, it can also spread to the eyelids and nose. The exact cause is unknown, but it contributes to factors such as a large number of tumescence, gravity pull, lymphatic drainage of the frontal scalp, loose donor skin, older adults, and large sessions. 
• Bleeding: Maybe like other surgical procedures, especially in patients with antiplatelet drugs. Postoperative bleeding is usually the result of careless scalp trauma that causes extrusion of one or more grafts. This can be controlled by applying constant pressure to the bleeding area for 10-15 minutes.
• Central scalp necrosis: This can occur after long sessions in vascular compromised patients, especially in the elderly. Although the exact cause is unknown, it is suspected that the central scalp receives a relatively lower blood supply. Smoking, diabetes and actinic disorders can affect this disease.
• Recipient site effluvium / post-operative shock loss: Post-operative effluvium of recipient’s hair can occur after transplant, but it is not significant. Post-operative effluvium leads to the development of recipients, vascular disease or oedema. Usually appear 2-4 weeks after surgery. However, most affected hairs begin to grow after 2-3 months. To reduce post-operative effluvium, care must be taken to protect existing hair during the creation of the recipient site. Minoxidil postoperatively can reduce the incidence of this problem.
• Fistulas and arterial aneurysms are rare complications that occur more frequently with older techniques, but can still be present after modern HRS.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, this is a medical procedure that has helped thousands of people. It is like most other operations, and most of the complications are avoidable. Regular follow-up care to a doctor is very important.

Stay in good physical health before the procedure, and your body can recover faster. The typical time to recover from bleeding and mild swelling is four or five days. Patients usually feel good when they come out after this time, and often a month after surgery, everything seems normal. 

Here at Hair Sure Clinic, we are proud of the quality of the procedures we offer and the professionalism of the surgeon. So you can trust us with your hair transplant procedure. For more information about the procedure or to order a consultation with one of our hair transplant surgeons, call  094940 20202 today.