On June 26, 2011 Dr. Cole demonstrated CIT in Bangkok, Thailand at the first Asian Association of Hair Restoration Surgery. Over 130 physicians predominately from Asia attended this meeting. A number of physicians from the United States also attended this meeting. Physicians from the USA included Robert True, MD, Glenn Charles, DO, Ron Shapiro, MD, and Paul McAndrews, MD. The meeting was chaired by the 2010-2011 President of the Asian Association of Hair Restoration Surgery, Dr. Damkerng Pathomvanich. Dr. Pathomvanich invited Dr. Cole to demonstrate his method of FUE, which he calls CIT, as well as present 4 talks devoted to CIT.
Dr. Cole demonstrated his Power Cole Isolation Device (PCID) to the attendees of the live surgery demonstration in Bangkok, Thailand. Dr. Tan Tyng Yuan, MBBS assisted Dr. Cole in this surgery demonstration. Dr. Tyng Tan was extremely helpful in the training session. Dr. Tyng Tan displayed superior surgical skills and a comforting bedside manner. Dr. Cole was very impressed by her aesthetic sense and surgical talent. With the assistance of Dr. Tyng Tan, Dr. Cole demonstrated the superiority of sharp punches and a clear understanding of why dull punches promoted by the Dr. Jim Harris safe system of FUE are inferior to sharp instrumentation. Numerous physicians were able to try the new Power Cole Isolation Device and they were able to cut lovely grafts easily. The PCID lowers the learning curve dramatically for physicians who wish to offer FUE to their patients with hair loss. Dr Cole and Dr. Tyng Tan also demonstrated the manual method of extracting FUE grafts using instrumentation developed by Dr. Cole. Dr. JS Bang also assisted Dr. Tyng Tan and Dr. Cole demonstrate the manual method of extracting grafts using Dr. Cole’s line of FUE instruments. Dr. JS Bang currently performs hair restoration surgery in Seoul, South Korea at the Forhair clinic, http://www.forhair.co.kr, which is affiliated with Dr. Cole.
Those patients seeking their hair loss solutions in Asia are encouraged to see Dr. JS Bang and Dr. Tyng Tan. Dr. Tyng Tan operates the Hair and Laser Clinic in Singapore. In addition to training with Dr. Cole, Dr. Tyng Tan has received formal training in hair transplant surgery from many physicians in Asia following her medical education in London, England. Dr. JS Bang and Dr. Tyng Tan also offer medical treatment. Dr. Tyng Tan specializes in hair transplant surgery in Singapore. Dr. Tyng Tang has a state of the art medical facility in Singapore equipped for a variety of aesthetic procedures, as well.
Following this live surgery demonstration, Dr. Cole spent two days at the office of Damkerng Pathomvanich in Bangkok, Thailand. Dr. Cole brought his PCID to the office of Dr. Pathomvanich. Dr. Pathomvanich was able to skillfully extract several hundred perfect FUE grafts rapidly using the PCID. The doctors in attendance spent several days discussing numerous aspects of hair transplant surgery. Dr. Cole saw many of Dr. Pathomvanich’s patients who all had excellent results. Dr. Pathomvanich demonstrated his method of strip harvesting, which has essentially no follicle transection. While Dr. Cole is not a fan of strip surgery, he was very impressed with the fine strip scars that Dr. Pathomvanich is able to achieve despite taking large volumes of scalp from the head that often exceed 50 square centimeters. Dr. Cole’s experience from over 8000 strip procedures revealed that fine scars are the norm from a single procedure, but patients often require more than one strip procedure at some point in their life. These follow-up procedures often result in a wider scar. Strip procedures do distort the direction of hair growth with the very first procedure, and there is no way to prevent this distortion. Dr. Pathomvanich stated that he is able to achieve fine strip scars in over 80 to 90% of his patients following their first hair transplant performed by his strip harvesting method. Dr. Cole’s philosophy is that a 10-20% chance of a wider scar is too much of a risk. It’s wonderful if you are one of the 80 to 90% who get a fine scar, but what do you do if you are one of the 10 to 20% who get a wider scar? There are no do overs in hair transplant surgery in Dr. Cole’s opinion. Once the complications occur, the complications create often create multiple problems for the patient that are often impossible to correct. While it is possible to graft the strip scar with grafts obtained by FUE, it is often not possible to completely conceal the strip scar. One can never over come the alterations in hair growth direction that strip procedures create with the very first strip incision. Thus, even though Dr. Cole was very impressed by the work of Dr. Pathomvanich and his associate physicians, he still believes that the future in hair restoration surgery lies in FUE. Dr. Cole firmly believes that his latest developments in surgical instruments will make it easier than ever for physicians to offer patients an FUE solution should they require hair restoration surgery. With these advancements in instrumentation, more and more physicians will be able to offer FUE to patients with hair loss. Never the less, patients comfortable with the risks associated with strip surgery will find that they are in very capable hands with Dr. Damkerng Pathomvanich.
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