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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Plast Surg 2021; 54(04): 477-482
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1739255
Review Article

Complications of Hair Transplant Procedures—Causes and Management

Anil Kumar Garg
1   Rejuvenate Plastic Cosmetic & Hair Transplant Centre, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
,
Seema Garg
1   Rejuvenate Plastic Cosmetic & Hair Transplant Centre, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
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Abstract

Hair transplant surgery per se has low risk, is relatively safe, and has minimum incidence of complications. However, it is a well-accepted fact that no medical science procedure exists without any potential risk of complications. The complication may be a single complaint in the form of pain, itching, dissatisfaction related to the procedure's outcome, or surgical complication in the form of infection, wound dehiscence or skin necrosis. Inadequate counselling increases unsatisfaction. Improper examination increases the complications, and incomplete medical history and history of allergy increases the risk during surgery.

The author collected data of his 2896 patients, operated over a period of 10 years, and recorded the complains and complications. The most common complications were sterile folliculitis, noted in 203 patients, vasovagal shock in seven patients of, hypertensive crisis in one patient, hiccups in six patients, facial edema after hair transplant in 18 patients, graft dislodgement in 8 patients, infection in two diabetic patients, minor necrotic patches in recipient area in three patients, keloid development in one patient, numbness in 18 cases, and hypersensitivity in recipient and/or donor area. Donor area effluvium was seen in one case and three patients showed recipient area effluvium. Twenty-six patients were not happy with the results, and five cases showed partial loss of implanted hair. The overall significant life-threatening or major complications were zero, but the total minor complications' percentage was 0.10%.

The key to minimize complaints and complications are detailed counselling, taking careful medical history and history of allergy, and proper examination of patients.

Keywords

wound dehiscence - necrosis - scalp laxity - telogen effluvium - hypertensive crisis


Publication History

Article published online:
31 December 2021

© 2021. Association of Plastic Surgeons of India. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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