There is a new trend for false marketing using the term ‘Robotic Hair Transplant’. This term sounds impressive and many patients are drawn to it. However, this is misleading!!
- There is only one robot capable of doing hair transplant which is the ARTAS Robot.
- This robot does the first step of FUE by making holes around the grafts. It DOES NOT extract the grafts or implant them. Those steps are done by humans.
- There is no ARTAS Robot anywhere in Pakistan currently. Anyone advertising robotic hair transplant is doing so falsely.
- The ARTAS robot is prohibitively expensive in the Pakistan context. Moreover, it is useful for unskilled surgeons who cannot do FUE without high transection. At our center, our speed and transection rate for FUE is better than the ARTAS robot.
- There are other devices such as HAART which claim to be hair transplant robots and are marketed aggressively for the same. All these devices require humans to judge the hair angle and perform the FUE. Hence, they cannot be called TRUE ROBOTS.
It is often tempting to fall for these terms. One day, in the future, hair transplants might indeed be entirely performed by robots. However, at present, the technology is very expensive and can be beaten by skilled surgeons.