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| Subject:
Local anesthetic used in hair transplants |
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Question:
I recently read an article you wrote about the need
to reduce the amount of epinephrine in the local
anesthetic used in hair transplants, because epinephrine
can cause telogen effluvium and carries some health
risks with it. I'm concerned about both actually
(I don't have a heart condition but even with regular
examinations conditions may go undetected, as you
know) if I am to undergo an HT procedure. How much
(you can give the concentration ratio, I do know
how it is measured) can the amount of epinephrine
be reduced in the local anesthesia used in hair
transplantation so that these two risks will be
negligible? I understand that epinephrine does have
properties that make it of value, but based on your
article its risks may outweigh the benefits. Please
comment.
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Answer:
The concentrations of epinephrine used by most hair
transplant surgeons are not dangerous in healthy
patients. The main point of the article was to use
other means of hemostasis in long transplant sessions
since the duration of epinephrine is only 20 minutes
and it is problematic to keep injecting it. Certainly
high doses can be a health risk in some predisposed
individuals i.e. with heart disease or who are on
broad b-blocker blood pressure medications.
We use concentrations of 1:200,000 to 1:600,000.
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| Answered
by: Dr.
Robert Bernstein |
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