Can Alopecia Areata Patients Have a Hair Transplant?

Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disorder. This disease attacks the hair follicles. The main reason behind this disease is genetic inheritance. Therefore, the genes are under constant observation to find the cure. Consequently, genes are susceptible to cause this disorder. There are chances to get this disease at birth. But it is not obvious to say who will eventually develop it.

Treatments

The treatments of alopecia areata are quite challenging. However, there are a few treatments that made surgical procedures easier. The outcome of the surgical therapies is now handled easily. The top recommendation of science is hair transplant, for this case.

Hair Loss

In one case, for instance, the patient got surgical therapy. But he lost all of his body hair. The hair loss started from the scalp. And all the hair on the whole body fell off. Mostly, the patients of this disease lose all their hair. So hair transplantation these days is the only solution to this problem. However, there is another question that arises.

Is Transplantation Appropriate for Its Patients?

In the past few decades, patients of this disorder were not recommended to have any surgical treatment. Rarely, transplantation suited any of the patients. In recent years, the doctors have controlled the conditions up to a certain usable extent. The immune system is controlled during the surgery. This way, it does not attack the follicles and pose any danger. The autoimmune attack is susceptible to occur anytime after transplantation. It can occur after two months of transplantation or after fifty years. Safety measures must be observed strictly.

Consulting the Physician

Few patients of alopecia areata have a stubborn spot on the skin. This spot doesn’t go away and sometimes spreads to other areas. Therefore, you must consult a physician about it. If you are considering having a transplant, then you must ask a doctor first. There are many risks in this step. So before you take this step, you must be well aware of the consequences.

Treatments Hindering Hair Transplant

Generally, the treatments include topical steroids. Besides that, steroids injections are also part of the treatment. There are other treatments as well, which include minoxidil, diphencyprone, and anthralin. Also, besides topical treatments and injections, there are oral treatments as well.

Rare Chances for Hair Transplantation

Mostly, the surgeons don’t perform transplantation of the patients with prolonged alopecia. The “long-standing” alopecia areata is not a situation to have a transplant. However, some of the surgeons were successful in performing transplantation.

In one case, the doctor performed transplantation of the area affected by alopecia. That case was successful.

The Chances of Transplantation

There are several conditions in which transplantation is possible. Nonetheless, these reasons are very rare. But if in any case, they are present, the patient can have a transplant. Some of the conditions are as follows.

  • The size of the area affected by alopecia is not very large
  • If the area remains constrained to a smaller portion
  • Condition of the area affected remains unchanging for years
  • If the scalp biopsy has no inflammation

So all these conditions observed in the area give us a clue about the situation. It can tell us whether hair transplantation is possible or not. However, a thorough discussion with a physician is always the better option. Although transplantation is rarely an option, under thorough observation, it is applicable.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This field is required.

You may use these <abbr title="HyperText Markup Language">html</abbr> tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*This field is required.