Hair Restoration Blog

Hair transplant surgery with follicular unit transplantation is the gold standard for the treatment of male patterned baldness for most men. There are several conditions a hair transplant surgeon should take into extra consideration before performing a hair transplant surgery. Most of those conditions are skin related problems that may lead to the loss of hair after hair transplant surgery like alopecia areata (AA) or cicatricial alopeica.  The patients may experience poor hair growth after hair transplant surgery or they may not grow hair at all.  Some systemic diseases may also hinder the full growth of the grafts such as thyroid diseases.

Diabetes is definitely not a contraindication for hair transplant surgery, however, like any other surgery it may delay the healing of the surgical wound.  Wound healing problems are not only limited to hair restoration surgery, but could be seen in any other skin procedure especially if diabetes is not quite controlled.  We perform hair transplant on patients with diabetes who have normal levels of glucose.  We at US Hair Restoration specifically emphasize on the close monitoring of blood glucose before, during and a few days after hair transplant surgery.

Although the rate of wound complications in diabetic patients always stays or seems higher than an average individual, monitoring and close controlling the diabetes around the time of surgery is critical to significantly reduce the rate of wound complications of a hair transplant surgery in diabetic patients.

Q:

I have diabetes. Can I have a hair transplant procedure?

A:

Patients with diabetes can successfully have a hair transplant surgery if diabetes is under good control. Diabetes used to be a life limiting disorder and diabetic patients could not have many elective surgical procedures due to their increased risk of wound complications and infection. With the new medications and methods for controlling diabetes, patients with diabetes can safely have hair transplant surgery or any other elective procedures without significant increased risk of infection or complications with their healing phase. Here at US Hair Restoration, we need to have a clearance from the doctor who follows patient for his/her diabetes to make sure patient’s blood sugar is in normal range and diabetes is effectively controlled.