Sterilization methods used in Hair Transplantation

Sterilization methods used in Hair Transplantation

What we do at Nuleaf Skin & Hair Clinic, Pune

In recent years with the take-off of medical tourism in India, numerous hair transplant centres across India area offering specialized packages for the foreign nationals including transportation, hotel stay and the entire procedure of the hair transplant. The hair transplants which cost up to $10,000- $20,000(₹6, 40,000 to ₹12, 80,000) in the western countries like USA, UK and Australia, cost no more than $ 3000 (₹1, 92,000) in India. This is a huge difference and makes it attractive to the foreign nationals.

However with a difference this big, obvious question comes to a logical mind: will low cost mean poor or sub-standard medical care? After all, this is a surgical procedure and nobody wants inferior care when it comes to their health. Will we get in more trouble with choosing something which is cheaper?

With consumer industry booming all around the world, the prevalent thinking is higher cost usually will give you a higher quality of care. But this is not the same when it comes to medical costs around the world. When we were in medical school we used to make fun of our relatives in USA who spent a fortune on as trivial medications like an antacid. In India, most of the medications are subsidized by the government and made available at equivalent quality at about 4-5times cheaper rate than UK, USA etc (It’s a different matter that most Indians still can’t afford these). But to someone looking from outside it’s a medical heaven!

High prices for medical procedures in other westernized countries are mainly due to high labor cost, high medication cost, high liability and indemnity insurance costs and of course in case of hair transplantation lack of medical insurance cover. The lower cost in India is precisely due to the same reasons: low labor cost, low medication cost, low liability and indemnity insurance cost. So, lower cost of hair transplant is not because we omit necessary steps of the surgery.

Now the question of quality of care: A leading doubt many of the patients coming from abroad express is whether the facilities perform adequate sterilization procedures to ensure no infections occur to them. Sterilization is a process to neutralize all known pathogens from the medical devices. It is a norm for all hair transplant centers to have “Autoclave” which sterilizes all medical instruments like forceps, slit handles, punches etc with high pressures and heat. In our center an autoclave confirmation strip (paper indicator strip) is made with the name of each patient and record of it is kept in the register.

Apart from this, most of the needles and materials used are disposable and are not repeatedly used. I will summarize what we do at our clinic as a part of routine sterilizations methods:

Material Used	Sterilization Method
Bed Sheets, Linen, OT uniforms and Patient uniform	Washed with chlorhexidine after each use and autoclaved.
Gauzes and cotton	Autoclaves before use and discarded (single use only).
Forceps, handles,  titanium punches and other metal instruments	Manual cleaning with alcohol after each use then Sidex (Freshly made Gluteraldehyde solution) cleaning and autoclave before and after every use.
Needles and syringes for anesthesia, tumescence etc	Disposable and are EO (Ethylene Oxide) Sterilzed by manufacturers, discarded after each use.
OT Room, lights and table	Cleaning before and after every procedure with Sodium Hypochlorite solution and Fumigated with Formalin before and after every procedure

The chances of getting any sort of infection are equal with the western hospitals if above methods are followed.

 

For a better understanding and satisfaction of the patients (all patients Indian as well as the foreign nationals are concerned regarding the sterilization methods and risks involved), it should be a standard practice to inform regarding this aspect with, if possible, actual demo of sterilization procedure. This alleviates the patients from fear of a surgery performed abroad away from their home country.