ACell Wound Regeneration Product for the Treatment of Hair Transplant Scars

"I first heard of Acell four months ago, learned it is a product that has been used in Veterinary medicine for years. Acell provides a basement membrane surface which allows for epithelial cell growth, or more simply skin regeneration. It caught my interest because in veterinary use it not only regenerates skin, but regenerates skin with normal hair follicles. Further, Acell has been approved for wound care in humans, and in patients where it has been used, the hair follicles regenerate as well as the skin. Excessive scarring is a problem all hair restoration surgeons encounter. It is always a concern of the patient, that their donor site scar will be unattractive and visible. I immediately wondered what great things this would do to help repair patients old scars and I couldn’t help but imagine that using Acell in the hair transplant procedure would possibly produce an undetectable scar, and perhaps to even regenerate the donor area.

I decided to find a patient with a wide donor scar and to suture in Acell - if the Acell works with a wide donor scar, it will work with any size scar. The question is whether or not the hair will regenerate as it does in animals or as it does in human wound care on other areas of the body. I was fortunate enough to have the company that makes Acell provide me with some samples, and used the same protocol used for wound care, provided to me by the company. As far as I know this is the first time this has been tried in the scar of a hair transplant patient. The hope is that Acell will work and provide a better option for hair transplant patients with excessive scarring." - Dr. Robert Jones.

Test Patient's Before Photos

The patient is a 41 year old male who had numerous previous surgeries and bad scarring as a result.

The scar was excised, the wound was rinsed with saline, and Acell powder was generously applied to the exposed tissue. Two layers of Acell Wound Sheets were applied over the powder and the sheets were held in place with 5-0 gut.

The patient will provide Dr. Robert Jones updates frequently and take photos as it heals.

Dr. Jones felt that this was the ideal patient, a patient with lots of scaring from past surgeries. This will be the most amazing use for Acell in Hair Transplants if the healing goes as we hope - to regenerate the donor area and to eliminate scaring from past, poorly performed, hair transplants.

Immediately Post Op photos after apply ACell at Dr. Jone's clinic

 

It has been a few days since the surgery, Here is what Dr. Jones' patient said about his past experience with hair transplants and about how the surgery went for him.

"All of the work I had done was in the early nineties, between 1991 and 1995. The first procedure was for 50 mini graphs with PAI Int in Ottawa. This was followed by 3 scalp reductions brokered by Regency Hair in Ottawa. The procedures were all performed in Montreal by various doctors. Again with Regency Hair, I had two strip surgeries for a total of maybe 600 - 700 graphs. Well as one can imagine the back and top of my head look like a railway crossing. Lots of scarring. Gave up on everything about 4 years ago, no Rogaine, no Propecia, no hair thickeners and no hats, but I still look into the boards every day, just hoping that the cure has been discovered. Hopefully this new procedure will work and we can rid ourselves of these ugly scars for good.

As for the procedure, it was fast, painless, and I drove home to Ottawa right after."

2 Weeks Update

"There have been many questions sent to me on the methods used and the expected outcome of this patient. The protocol that I used followed the suggestions put forward by a representative of the Acell company. I followed their suggestions as closely as I could and have been in phone contact with them several times discussing this patients progress. The photo below is one taken today. The Acell product hopefully will allow normal hair bearing tissue on either side of the wound to grow across the wound. When this heals completely, we hope to have normal hair bearing tissue where there use to be scar. It will take a few more months to see the complete results of the experiment. If this is not successful, I plan to try another strategy along with the Acell company to try to make this work. I would ask that everyone be patient, since this is the first patient where Acell has been used in this application." - Dr. Robert Jones

25 days to 1 month update

Here is the latest photo from the hair transplant scar repair test patient treated at Dr. Jones's clinic using the experimental Acell wound regeneration product. There seems to be hair growing at the edge of the scar or wound but it is still early to make conclusions.  You can click Acell Hair Transplant Scar Repair for detailed discussion on this experiment including comments between Dr. Jones and our community.