It was an educational few days for our operation team when they recently visited ISHRS’ first ever FUE conference in Denver, Colorado. The symposium focused solely on FUE, and Dr Demir Ilter was there to guest lecture as one of only two specially invited medical experts. The other physician was Dr Robert True from the True & Dorin Medical Group.

The conference was arranged by Dr A. Harris from the Hair Sciences Center of Colorado. Both Dr True and Dr Harris are specialists in motorized FUE, which is considered to be a highly interesting technique for the future. In total, some 40 physicians participated from, among other countries, Japan, Pakistan, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, the Phillipines, Sweden, Argentina and the USA.

What we learned
FUE has increased its market share in recent years. It is the method that more and more patients are interested in. The physicians at the conference were, therefore, all very interested in attending this event.

The first day addressed general issues surrounding technique, while the other days looked at using FUE in complicated cases. One interesting observation was that Dr True, Dr Harris and Dr Ilter all use different techniques. For example, Dr Harris and Dr True harvest body hair, which the Ilter Clinic chooses not to do. Another difference is that Dr Harris and Dr True use a motorized FUE instrument that measures 1.1 to 1.3 mm in diameter. However, the Ilter Clinic’s procedures take place manually (i.e., not using a motor) using much smaller, 0.6mm diameter instruments.

A common question that pops up is why the Ilter Clinic persists in using such small instruments?
There are many advantages to using smaller tools. The risk for scarring in the donor area is greatly reduced. And as less tissue is extracted with the graft, meaning we can position the grafts much denser in the recipient area.

On the second day, Dr Ilter gave a lecture about a female cancer patient suffering from hair loss. The Ilter Clinic operated 2,500 FUE and produced very good results after 10 months. He also told of the complicated reparation surgeries the clinic has performed on sufferers of failed STRIP and punch graft procedures by other clinics. In these cases, the Ilter Clinic had eased the damage by evening out the transplants so that the patients looked normal, and not with a “doll’s hair” appearance even with shortly cropped hair.

The operation team also performed a “live patient” seminar where Dr Ilter explained the fundamentals when he performs an FUE operation. This included the importance of every detail, from the operation assistants to lighting, and not just relying on the instruments. Dr Ilter also explained how he creates natural looking hairlines using lateral incisions and how surgeons can create good hair design for their patients.