The ISHRS Annual Scientific Meeting is the premier meeting in the field of Hair Restoration Surgery
Lord Murugan Statue
This article was originally published in October 2014 while Dr. Robert Leonard was presenting on Follicular Unit Excision, or FUE, at an International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery Annual Scientific Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. References to ARTAS robotic technology reflect the hair transplant technology used by the practice at that time. ARTAS is no longer offered by Leonard Hair Transplant Associates, and Dr. Leonard retired from the practice in 2018.
I am writing to you from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where I am presenting two lectures about follicular unit excision. In one talk, I shall discuss the Evolution of the ARTAS Robotic System in which I review the history of hair restoration surgery from its inception in 1939 through the decades to the current robot-assisted donor tissue harvesting method.
One significant observation I made is that…what was once old is now new again. By that I mean that in 1959—when the first hair transplant procedure was performed in the United States for androgenetic alopecia took place—extracted grafts were very large just like computers used to be the size of a file cabinets. Today’s excisioned grafts are tiny as are the computers that can fit into hearing aids and cell phones. We obtain very natural results from even one transplant procedure.
Additionally, I reviewed the timetable from inception to the current status of the ARTAS Robotic System, which has occurred through a tremendous amount of technological knowledge coupled with strong clinical experience.
It’s great to be able to learn and to teach at this most important meeting in my field.
