Safe Choices for Hair Transplantations

*Ready to explore hair transplantation? While focusing on the fantastic results, it's also smart to understand all aspects of the journey, including potential side effects and risks, to ensure a positive experience! In this essential medical talk, Peter Zombori and Dr. Alkiviadis Karoutis from the Swiss Luxury Clinic will equip you with the knowledge to make confident, informed decisions for your hair restoration, ensuring you achieve the best possible outcomes.***Peter Zombori:** Hi everybody. Welcome to our medical talk. Today, it's about hair transplantation and all the possible side effects and risks. I'd like to welcome Dr. Karoutis from the Swiss Luxury Clinic. Welcome, Doctor. In an earlier podcast, we discussed techniques and success rates, but of course, there's a side to consider, especially in non-qualified surgical environments, as you've already mentioned. We'll discuss this again here, as it can lead to side effects and risks. Because we receive this question all the time, I thought I'd contact a top-level expert like you to enlighten us about the potential side effects and risks.**Dr. Alkiviadis Karoutis:** Thank you so much, Peter, for having me. Unfortunately, this is a quite common question individuals have. Usually, side effects in the surgical aspect of hair transplantation stem from discrepancies in the execution of the surgery or from a focus on commercialization and financial benefits. Many of these side effects arise simply from the way the surgery was performed.Currently, as we've discussed, you find a lot of unqualified, non-medical personnel performing these operations. A very common problem arising from these procedures is **permanent damage**. This is why there's often a certain limit mentioned at commercial centers regarding how many operations you can have. Considering this is a surgery where we take tissue from one area and move it to another, we must be quite careful with how and how much we extract. When this care is not exercised, you often end up with these "holes" in the back of your head, performed by an individual with no medical background who is simply chasing a number. These holes are made with a surgical cut that is quite damaging, combining mechanical trauma with heat-induced trauma. This is also why you often see very long recovery periods.**Watch the full video here:****Dr. Alkiviadis Karoutis:** What I usually tell my patients, what I give them as a compass, is to always ask if a doctor will be doing the operation for you. Also, inquire about the recovery time. In surgery, a long recovery is usually indicative of a lot of trauma. This is how you can assess if it's a quality surgery: what is the recovery time they are quoting you? This is the most important thing because this type of permanent damage is unfortunately irreversible. This is the most common side effect we see.**Peter Zombori:** Basically, what you're saying is we have two different types of surgeries. Let's say, those made by professional and well-trained doctors, and then, as we discussed in the first podcast, technicians who have no medical background and less skill. The distinction here is clear. But even with a highly skilled doctor, I'm assuming there must be some risks and side effects. I'd like to understand what those side effects are. Is it inflammation? Is it aesthetic issues? What could happen, and how do you manage it so it doesn't happen?**Dr. Alkiviadis Karoutis:** So, having sufficient medical training in surgery and aesthetic medicine, and truly understanding tissue, you can basically **avoid 80% of these issues**. The only problem is when this level of expertise is absent. For example, we could mention an infection that might happen afterward, but most of the time, if you're taking antibiotics, this should not occur.Another possibility could be necrosis. But, of course, anyone with a medical degree would understand that placing follicles right next to each other could lead to necrosis if the correct distances are not maintained. Then, you also have aesthetic problems with how the tissue appears afterward, which can be quite common. Again, surgeons who specialize in aesthetic surgery and medicine are typically very, very careful about how they perform these operations because they know their entire credibility is on the line.I think it's worth mentioning a very common side effect that can happen, which is basically the **shock loss effect**. As I've mentioned in the past, this is a side effect of over-harvesting, meaning you take out too much tissue. The body then goes into a shock state. There is a small chance of entering this shock state when we take a lot of tissue out of the body and increase the amount of trauma. Consequently, the individual might experience this shock state, leading to the loss of hair they already have. Of course, some of this hair often comes back later, but there is a chance it will never return. However, side effects exist so that we can avoid them through proper execution. It's not something that *must* happen.Our job as doctors is to make sure the procedure is as safe as possible and that we have as few of these side effects as possible. Then, it's about how we manage them if they occur.**Peter Zombori:** So, to sum it up: knowledge, surgical skills, understanding of tissue, not over-harvesting, and of course, all the following hygienic procedures will limit risk and side effects to a very small percentage.**Dr. Alkiviadis Karoutis:** And specifically, I think the one question—which I always give as a takeaway message to all patients and candidates considering this—is to **always ask to speak to a doctor and ask this doctor if he will perform the operation**. With these two questions, you can eliminate most of the severe side effects, and it's the only way to ensure a certain level of safety going forward.**Peter Zombori:** Dr. Karoutis, amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your insights. It's been a pleasure talking to you.**Dr. Alkiviadis Karoutis:** Thank you for your time. Have a good day.