Improve your practice offering with ARTAS the first and only robotic hair transplant system

The ARTAS system is a robotic revolution in speed, precision and accuracy for hair transplants.

Cryomed, a leading supplier of aesthetic medical devices in Australia and New Zealand, has just added a new feather to its cap – it is now the distributor of ARTAS, the first and only hair transplant robot.

Hair transplant surgery has come a long way in the past several decades, with state-of-the-art technology and scientific breakthroughs that stand to revolutionise hair transplantation. ARTAS is the first hair transplant robot and has brought with it a new level of efficiency, effectiveness and innovation.

The ARTAS System uses sophisticated digital mapping from restoration robots and new ARTAS-3 precision robotics to harvest thousands of healthy individual hair follicles from the scalp. These follicles are then expertly transplanted into the area of thinning hair.

The revolutionary approach to hair transplant surgery is a welcome addition to the ever-growing industry. In the past decade, the number of hair transplant procedures in Australia has doubled to almost 4,000 procedures annually. Statistics show two-thirds of men experience some hair loss by their mid-30s, and 50 percent of men will see significant loss in hair thickness by age 50.

Traditional hair transplants

Hair transplant surgery has conventionally been performed using one of two harvesting techniques: the strip technique and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE).

The strip technique takes an ellipse of skin from the back of the head, which is then dissected under microscope magnification and the grafts are made from this. The excised strip is then closed with sutures, and patients are left with a fine line of scarring at the back of the head.

The FUE technique uses a small cylindrical punch – one millimetre in diameter – to drill out follicular unites one by one with a punch excision. This method is performed using a specialised drill, which can be operated manually or with the assistance of engine rotation.

Typically, the surgeon uses high definition imagery to extract each follicular unit without causing damage to the live hair follicle.

To manually perform the FUE technique – or even when using an engine-assisted drill – the procedure is tiring and demanding. It is more technical then the strip technique, and the grafts can be easily damaged, which lowers the growth potential after transplantation.

However, many patients choose the FUE technique, as they don’t want the linear scar at the back of the head. This is particularly the case in patients with short hair, or males with military style shaved heads.

Strip and FUE only refer to harvesting of the donor hairs. Once the grafts are extracted, the follicles need to be prepared and then transplanted to the balding site. This needs to be done relatively quickly, as the extracted follicles have no blood supply and the faster they’re back in the scalp, the better for future growth.

The revolution behind ARTAS

The ARTAS robot takes over the extraction process and has been described as an ‘FUE game changer’. It can remove up to 1,200 hair follicles per hour, minimising the length of the procedure and reducing the transition time between extraction and transplantation.

Because FUE is a slower technique to perform than strip, it can take an experienced surgeon a significant amount of time to perform an FUE manually. With this comes fatigue and potentially inconsistency. The robot protects against any inconsistencies, and its speed is comparable with the best surgeons in the world.

For the patient, the faster speed and increased accuracy of extraction is also very beneficial.

They require less anaesthetic, the procedure takes less time and the results are more reliable.

By using digital mapping and precision robotics, ARTAS can extract healthy hairs without causing damage to the follicle. This helps ensure long-term growth after replanting.

The ARTAS system uses proprietary software to map out the new hair line and punch holes in the recipient area to an exact percentage.

After the extracted hairs are transplanted to the balding site, the roots develop their own blood supply and begin to grow. New hairs are seen a few months after the procedure.

Typically, the surgeon applies a dressing to the micro wounds in the donor area and antibiotic cream directly following the procedure. The holes usually heal over seven to 10 days following the operation leaving tiny white circular scars.

While the hair transplant operation is largely the same with ARTAS, the new technology is the first step in a revolution of FUE hair transplant surgery. By using image-guided robotics and an intuitive touchscreen interface, the ARTAS-3 technology precisely dissects follicular units, thousands of times in a single session, setting new standards in the efficiency, consistency and reliability of FUE hair transplants. The revolutionary system eliminates guesswork and fatigue associated with manual handling methods, along with scarring, complications and downtime unlike older transplant methods.

With more than 200 systems in use worldwide since 2011, the ARTAS robot is opening the door to practitioners outside the traditional hair transplant field, allowing practices to offer hair restoration services to an untapped market.