Complications, Types, and Consequences of Hair Transplantation I.

Can a hair transplant involve complications? Like any surgical procedure, a hair transplant can naturally come with unwanted complications. Although these are rare, every hair clinic must be prepared to handle such unexpected events in accordance with professional protocol. In the first part of our article series, we list, in line with professional experience, the most common surgical complications associated with hair transplantation.

The complications of hair transplantation can be classified into the following categories:

• standard surgical risks
• medical planning errors
• medical and technical errors
• patients' personal factors
• the patient's physiological factors
• other reasons during the hair transplant

In addition, we can also observe some site-specific complications, including issues arising at the donor and recipient sites. Complications at the donor site vary extremely widely depending on the hair extraction technique.

These include, among others:

• various forms of undesirable scarring (e.g. a previous strip scar),
• depletion of the donor site,
• wound dehiscence (in the case of the strip method),
• necrosis,
• effluvium (shock loss),
• hypoesthesia (partial loss of sensation),
• neuralgia (nerve-related pain),
• hematoma (bleeding under the skin in various areas).

Complications of the recipient site:

• improper growth direction of the hair,
• the position of the hairline or its shape defect (e.g. symmetry),
• disruption of hair growth,
• graft-type error,
• a graft placement error during the hair transplant,
• hypopigmentation,
• hair color difference,
• chronic folliculitis,
• effluvium,
• ingrown hairs, cysts.