HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

Can someone please fill me in on what shock loss exactly is? Also, does all the hair lost from shock loss grow back in the next cycle?

Shock loss is when the hair sheds in response to either direct physical trauma to the follicle or a physiological response to trauma in the nearby area. This can sometimes happen after a hair transplant surgery, and is more likely to occur when adding hair to an area of existing density or diffuse thinning.

If the hair is going to shed, it will do so soon after surgery. Occasionally the shock loss is permanent, but it usually grows back. The earliest that you can see the shocked hair begin to grow back is 3 months, and you can expect to see full regrowth at about 1 year.

Good question!

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http://www.forhair.com/hairtransplant/t ... ight=shock loss

When you perform hair transplant surgery, you make incisions in the scalp and place grafts. Grafts are hair taken out of the body. When you take hair out of the body, it continues to metabolize. This results in the formation of toxic by products because oxygen has been taken away from the grafts.

Both the formation of toxic metabolites such as super oxide and other free radicals and the incisions are implicated in producing shock loss.

Incisions in the scalp create their own inflammatory response by the body that can result in the production of toxic metabolites.

These toxic metabolites are thought to cause a temporary shedding of pre-existing hair. the hair will grow back, but it may not be as thick in diameter as it was before shock loss. Therefore, we attempt to prevent shock loss.

We attempt to prevent it by limiting the density of grafting we perform where there is pre-existing hair. This limits both the number of incisions and the total amount of free radicals produced by grafts.

We also chill our grafts and place them in a special tissue medium that promotes a healthy environment for our grafts. It also helps to reduce the total amount of free radicals by quenching those that are made. Chilling reduces the metabolism of the cells to about 5% of their original metabolism. this reduces the amount of energy required by the cell to continue living. When cells must metabolize in an oxygen depleted environment (anaerobic environment), they will produce toxic metabolites. We minimize this by keeping the temperature between 2 and 10 degrees Celsius. We have also built a low temperature system for storing grafts, called the hypothermogod, which is a graft optimization device designed to keep the temperature of our grafts at a constant 2 degrees Celsius. Our storage solution is specially designed for these low temperatures. It is also very expensive. Most cljnics do not use this special solution and they do not have a hypothermogod. for this reason, the grafts in most clinics are either kept in a storage medium that can be harmful to hair if the temperature is lowered or they are kept at room temperature (about 20 degrees celsius).

our storage medium also quenches free radicals and reduces the total amount of free radicals prior to re-inserting them into the scalp. all these measures help to reduce the risk of shock loss and to produce a healthier graft with better survival.

Thank you, Dr. Cole and staff for, for the information. I appreciate it.

our pleasure

How about shock loss in the donor area? Will it take a longer time to recover? I am 8 months post-op and believe that I still have donor shock loss, as there are a few tiny, short hairs and black spots in the scar but it seems that they never grow. What will happen to them? What should I do to help them grow?

dennisabc, from the hundreds of patients that i personally witness and spoke to we have never had a patient that had shock loss in the donor area from FIT. Shock loss can occur in that area but as we all know it is temporary and usually the shocked hairs are growing back in 2-3 months.
I advise you to come to our office and let one of the doctors to exam your scars and the donor area, maybe you have ingrown hairs...

I've seen shock loss from strip surgery twice in 8000 procedures. I've seen shock loss in the donor area from FIT perhaps once though I'm not certain it was shock loss as the area of loss was below the area we harvested from. Most likely it was a case of alopecia areata that is totatlly unrelated to hair transplant surgery. In over 1200 cases of FIT, I've seen donor area shock perhaps once. I know that Dr. Jones had one case of shock loss in the donor area that resolved following his FUE procedure. The bottom line is that it is very rare.

Shock loss resolves itself. It will be apparent 2 to 3 weeks following a procedure and it resolves over 6 to 8 months. I would beging treating your area with Rogaine Foam twice a day and then get it checked out. I'd be very happy to take a look at it for you and offer my advice. At 8 months out, it is a good idea to get your concerns evaluated professionally.

I have another question regarding shock loss.

I had my transplant surgery about 5-1/2 months ago. I'd got plenty of breakouts in the donor area since my transplant. 2 pimples in particular that i got, whether it was acne or ingrown hair, has left me with 2 small bald spots.

Is this a situation of shock loss as well, since they were both pretty bad? Will the hair in these areas grown back? If so how long? I'm due for a checkup in about 2-1/2 months with dr. cole. Will i have to have these two areas grafted now to fix them? One was about 3 months ago, and the other was about 1 month ago.

Please let me know any information you have on my case.

take a photo and send it to me. i'll check it out. all in all a couple of pimples is really nothing to be concerned about but hair loss would bother anyone. unless something else is going on to cause hair loss, you should not have anything to worry about long term. i wouldn't worry about graftin anything rightn now, but lets take a look at it so we can evaluate your progress over time. haven't heard of these problems in the past, but that does not mean strange things don't occur. nothing serious should be going on with regard to your donor area, however.