NEW TECHNIQUE IN HAIR TRANSPLANTATION

[Anchor Lead]

More than 40% of men around the world are said to be bald. Conventional hair transplantation required thousands of hair follicles to be surgically removed and implanted one by one. But now there is a new technique that dramatically reduces such inconvenience.

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Hair follicles are collected from a patient's back scalp and inserted into a syringe-like tool one by one to be transplanted at balding spots. It takes between two to three hours to implant more than 2,000 follicles, an exhausting procedure for both the doctor and the patient.

[Soundbite] KIM HYEONG-JU(DIR., HAIR TRANSPLANT CLINIC) : "It's repetitive work which strains the muscles and bones. Also, the long surgery hours cause fatigue to build up in medical staff members as well as patients."

This is the serial hair implanter developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute. Unlike conventional tools, this device can transplant ten hair follicles at a time.

[Soundbite] CHOI EUN-CHANG(ETRI) : "One cartridge carries ten needles. A button turns the needles like a bullet chamber in a revolver."

The device used in the past had to be replaced every time a follicle was implanted, but with the new implanter, ten follicles can be transplanted before a new one is used. Fewer device replacements enabled surgery time to be shortened by more than an hour and better results.

[Soundbite] PROF. KIM MOON-KYU(KYUNGPOOK NAT'L UNIV.) : "Patients will suffer less and the transplanted hair survival rate should go up as the follicles remain removed from the scalp for a shorter period of time."

The multiple hair implanter, already commercialized in Korea, has also been registered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, paving the way for the product to enter the global markets.