Oral minoxidil use in androgenetic alopecia and telogen effluvium.

While current studies have supported oral minoxidil as a novel, adjunctive therapy in non-scarring forms of alopecia, there continues to be limited data on oral minoxidil for these conditions. To assess oral minoxidil use in the treatment of androgenetic alopecia and telogen effluvium, a multi-center, retrospective analysis was conducted in 105 adult patients treated for androgenetic alopecia and/or telogen effluvium with oral minoxidil (dose range 0.625-2.

Distinct Patterns of Hair Graft Survival After Transplantation Into 2 Nonhealing Ulcers: Is Location Everything?

Background: Studies highlighting the role of hair follicles (HFs) in wound healing have raised the challenge of bringing this knowledge to clinical applications. A successful translation is the transplantation of scalp HFs into chronic wounds to promote healing.

Objective: To characterize scar formation and hair growth in nonhealing ulcers after transplantation.

Optimal graft growth.

Excellent surgical results and high patient satisfaction with hair transplantation depend on attaining optimal growth. Unfortunately, even experienced surgeons acknowledge that graft survival often is not as high as is commonly stated. Hair transplant surgeons should be thoroughly familiar with the many variables that affect graft survival and refine their surgical techniques accordingly.

Follicular cell implantation: an update on "hair follicle cloning".

Follicular cell implantation has the potential to overcome many of the limitations of current surgical hair restoration, especially the finite supply of donor hair. Years of animal research have demonstrated the soundness of the basic concept, but reports in humans have shown inconsistency and problems with reproducibility. Some of these problems include (1) identifying the ideal cell type or types of the follicle to isolate and culture, (2) determining how to keep the cells inductive throughout the culturing process, and(3) overcoming economic and regulatory hurdles to bringing a safe and effective treatment to the market-place.