[A study of autogenous hair transplantation in Chinese]

From Sep. 1988 to Dec. 1992, a total of 980 procedures of autogenous punch grafts were performed in 395 patients with alopecia. This technique has mainly been used for seborrheic alopecia and cicatricial alopecia with sufficient hair in the donor site. Chinese people are unfavorably characterized by one-third less amount of hair than Westerners, lank hair shaft and strong contrast of color between the hair and hair-bearing scalp. The technique of L shape punch grafts was used for patients with insufficient hair in the donor site. Insertion of mini-grafts between the anterior rows of punch grafts made the frontal hairline more natural in appearance and eliminated the necessity of postoperative scalp tattoo. The results were perfect. We concluded that adult alopecic patients are good candidates for punch graft procedure, and for children and juvenile patients, scalp expansion is preferable.