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Updated: Apr 16, 2026
Author Spotlight: Anterior HR-OCT as a Non-Invasive Tool for Characterizing Ocular Surface Squamous Neoplasia
Published on: August 9, 2024
Optical coherence tomography for planning of follicular unit extraction
Kurt Schicho1, Rudolf Seemann, Michael Binder
1*Department of Cranio-Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria; †Department for Dermatology, Medical University Vienna; ‡Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Background:
As the subcutaneous course of the hair follicle cannot be extrapolated from the angle of hair emergence, the follicular unit extraction (FUE) method bears the risk of follicle transsection potentially affecting the success of the whole intervention. Histological examination can provide this angle information but are too time consuming and invasive to be integrated in the workflow.
Objective:
In this work, the authors present an effective and noninvasive way to determine these subcutaneous follicle angles.
Methods And Materials:
For this purpose, the authors use optical coherence tomography to provide images of the first 2 to 3 mm of the surface of the skin.
Results:
On 3 probands, they scanned 2 regions. We computed the number of hair follicles in a certain angular region around a mean angle, representing an FUE tool, and found a considerable diversity of the angular deviations.
Conclusion:
As this angular distribution massively influences the transsection rate, the authors suggest such a method to be considered as a future improvement of preoperative assessment.
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