Laser-Assisted Hair Transplantation: Histologic Comparison Between Holmium:YAG and CO2 Lasers
June 1999
in “
Proceedings of SPIE
”
TLDR The CO₂ laser is better for hair transplantation because it causes less damage than the Ho:YAG laser.
In a 1999 study, the histological effects of CO₂ and Holmium:YAG (Ho:YAG) lasers were compared for creating hair transplant recipient channels in human scalp tissue. The results showed that the Ho:YAG laser caused significantly larger zones of thermal injury, with a lateral thermal damage region measuring 589.30μm, compared to the CO₂ laser, which caused only 118.07μm of lateral thermal damage. Additionally, the Ho:YAG laser produced fractures beyond the thermal injury zone, while the CO₂ laser resulted in minimal epithelial disruption and less thermal damage. The CO₂ laser was found to be superior for hair transplantation due to its ability to create well-defined channels with minimal thermal injury, making it a more suitable option than the Ho:YAG laser for this procedure.
