Korean J Dermatol.
2000 Apr;38(4):462-465.
Single Hair Transplantation for Madarosis in Leprosy
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Korea.
- 2Ahn's Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery Clinic, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Madarosis or loss of eyebrows is one of the complications in leprosy, which takes
expressions out of the face and is considered as a stigma of leprosy in society. So the
patients with leprosy are usually eager to have the situation corrected through various methods
such as tatoo or surgery including scalp flap or hair transplantation.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the use of single hair transplantation for the correction of madarosis in patients with leprosy.
METHODS
An elliptical donor strip was removed with a No.10 blade from the occiput. It was sectioned into small slices and subsequently into single hair micrografts. Then these micrografts were inserted into preformed slits of eyebrows using hair implantation device.
RESULTS
Excellent cosmetic results and high patient satisfaction were seen in almost all patients. Reoperations were done in 3 patients due to partial sparsity or unnatural shape of the eyebrows. There were no complications except for pruritic papules which developed from the transplanted areas in 2 patients with eyebrow tatoos.
CONCLUSIONS
Single hair transplantation proved to be useful in the reconstruction of eyebrows in patients with leprosy and provided superior cosmesis to other grafts despite a technically difficult and time-consuming procedure.
