Hair transplantation: Preventing post-operative oedema

Swelling or oedema of forehead or eyelids is a common consequence of hair transplantation surgery. However, this results in increased morbidity and absence from work due to unaesthetic appearance. To study various physical and therapeutic modalities to reduce or completely prevent the occurrence of such oedema. Three hundred forty hair transplant patients were recruited in the study and were categorized into 8 groups depending upon the intervention employed. There were 32 dropouts in the study due to various reasons. Patients who were administered steroid with tumescent solution had the highest number of patients without oedema, with only 3 out of 117 patients developing oedema. Physical measures like position of head during sleeping, application of occlusion bands or ice packs did not show satisfactory results. Addition of triamcinolone to tumescent anaesthetic solution is a very effective technique of preventing post-operative swelling.