As the anesthesia wears off, if you had a strip harvesting procedure, you’ll experience a throbbing pain on the back of the scalp, but this can be managed with oral prescription pain medications such as Vicodin or Endocet.
Some patients rely on these medications for the first few nights so that they can rest their heads in a comfortable position and sleep. During the day, most patients use over-the-counter pain relievers. The pain shouldn’t disrupt your normal daily functions; most patients are able to return to their normal work activity in two to three days following hair transplant surgery.
Some patients experience pain from the sutures or staples used to close their wounds. Staples are more uncomfortable than sutures but may produce better long-term wound healing. When the staples or sutures are removed (10 to 20 days after surgery, depending on the doctor’s preference), most of the related pain goes away. A very small percentage of patients (less than 2 percent) have some discomfort in the wound for weeks or months after the surgery, but this discomfort usually subsides over time.
Numbness
Numbness of the scalp may occur due to necessary cutting of fine nerve fibers in the skin (less than 30 percent of patients). This is expected to gradually disappear over several months, but it’s possible that all the sensation may not return (less than 1 percent of patients). This is the consequence of strip harvesting and although it can happen with follicular unit extraction harvesting, it is far more rare.
In extremely rare circumstances, major sensory nerve injury may occur, resulting in long-term or possibly permanent numbness and/or pain in the scalp (less than 0.001 percent of patients). Having more than one hair transplant procedure puts you at a higher risk of severing a major sensory nerve, which can produce a temporary or permanent sensory defect in the back of the head. Your surgeon’s experience is paramount in avoiding this complication. The risk of such damage with strip harvesting although very small, is greater than the same damage from FUE harvesting.
Swelling
A small number of patients experience post-surgical swelling in the forehead if their grafts were placed in the frontal area. In the past, swelling was a real problem for almost every hair transplant procedure, but the use of short-term, higher-dose steroids during and after the surgery has made the problem rarely significant. Applying ice packs or cold compresses to the forehead a few times a day may help reduce swelling.
If swelling occurs, it usually appears on the third or fourth day after surgery and lasts from one to two days at most. You shouldn’t feel any pain with the swelling. Most people with swelling look terrible but feel fine. Significant swelling occurs in a substantial number of patients who do not use large dose steroids and less than one out of 40 patients for those using steroids. When swelling does occur, it ) usually drops down to the eyelids, possibly closing one eye on the third or fourth day (less than 1% of patients).
Infection
Although infection in hair transplantation is rare (less than 1 percent of patients), you’ll be given an antibiotic to reduce the possibility of infection at the beginning of the surgery. Your doctor may want you to use a special antibacterial soap the night before and the morning of surgery to help protect against infection, but washing with a good detergent shampoo may be just as effective. The symptoms of infection may include:
If you experience any of these symptoms, contact your doctor immediately.
Redness, swelling, and slight tenderness is to be expected for the first few days after the procedure. If the redness, swelling, or tenderness increases after the second day, you should speak with the doctor. Infection can occur at either the donor or the recipient site. Rarely, one or more grafts may become infected within the first two weeks following the surgery. Infected cysts in the recipient area may appear weeks after the surgery; they look like white pimples or redness around individual hairs.
They may be associated with a yellow-colored crust and may be tender. If soaked with a warm compress, they usually drain a yellow fluid following the soaking. If these should occur with any frequency, you should contact the doctor’s office. Antibiotic treatment may be necessary if they become infected, spread to other areas, or don’t respond to warm compresses.
Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article. Webworldarticles.com is a free articles resource thus practically any visitor can submit an article. However if you notice any copyrighted material, please contact us and we will remove the article(s) in discussion right away.
This article was sent to us by:
Kelly Makay at
06212010
1. Determining Which Types of Hair Loss Treatments Are For You
All articles in this directory are property of their respective authors. Additionally, read our Privacy Policy
© 2010 WebWorldarticles.com - All Rights Reserved. Partners: Gunblade Saga