Ulcer healing significantly increased in hair follicle-containing punch graft group versus nonhairy group
MONDAY, Oct. 24, 2016 (HealthDay News) — For patients with venous leg ulcers, ulcer healing is significantly increased using hair follicle punch scalp grafts, according to a study published in the November issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
María-Luisa Martínez, M.D., from the General Hospital of Villarrobledo in Albacete, Spain, and colleagues conducted a randomized trial with intraindividual comparison of hair follicle scalp grafts and nonhairy skin grafts, which were transplanted in parallel into two halves of the same ulcer in 12 patients.
The researchers found that at 18 weeks after the intervention, ulcer healing, as measured by the average percentage reduction, was increased significantly in the hair follicle group, with a reduction in the ulcer area of 75.15 percent compared with 33.07 percent in the control group (nonhairy grafts) (P = 0.002).
“Autologous transplantation of terminal hair follicles by scalp punch grafts induces better healing than punch grafts harvested from nonhairy areas,” the authors write. “Hair punch grafting is a minimally invasive surgical procedure that appears to be effective as a therapeutic tool for chronic venous leg ulcers.”
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