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Mantis stereo magnifiers from Vision Engineering are being used to support the latest hair
transplant surgery techniques at the Wimpole Hair Restoration Clinic, London.
The bright, clear image provided by the innovative Mantis viewing system allows medical
technicians to efficiently prepare and manipulate micro and mini hair grafts, ensuring
technician comfort and efficiency.
Hair transplanting is now very much a science rather than a black art. There are a finite
number of active hair follicles in any scalp, the only way to introduce new hair to bald areas is to
re-distribute hair follicles from the back of the patients head to the bald region.
No new hair will grow from the donor area, but the transplanted hairs continue to grow
normally in their new location. For reasons which are not yet entirely understood, hair follicles
from the back of the head are not subject to the effects of Male Pattern Baldness.
Previously, 4mm discs of scalp with hair were taken from the back of the head and directly
transplanted to the bald region. This technique worked but left an unnatural looking hairline,
where clumps or tufts of hair were clearly visible to the onlooker.
The latest techniques used at the Wimpole Hair Restoration Clinic involves the placing of
follicular units, whereby individual hair follicles or groups of two to three follicles are grafted to
create a more natural appearance. The new techniques offer aesthetic advantages to the
patient, but create a significantly greater workload and skill requirement for the surgeon and
technicians involved in the transplantation. Rather than simply move clumps of hair from the
back to the front of the head, a donor strip containing over 1000 hair follicles is removed from
the back of the head and then painstakingly dissected to produce individual follicular units.
The typical hair follicle is only a few millimetres in size, and when surrounding a light or
grey hair, identifying and cutting around the follicle using unaided eyesight or a standard
magnifier is difficult and extremely tiring. Mantis is an ergonomically optimised stereo viewing
system which allows operators to clearly see a bright, well contrasted 3D image. The viewing
head projects the image into the operator's eyes, allowing for a much greater freedom of head
movement than is usually associated with standard microscopes, where two fixed eyepieces
dictate where the technician puts their eyes and how they must hold their posture.
Good hand to eye coordination is maintained because the working distance between the
hands and the eyes is exactly the same as it would be without magnification. This approach
means that switching the gaze from the Mantis viewer to the grafts directly does not tire the eyes.
The expanded image from Mantis is particularly important when long term, intensive use is
necessary; such as with this procedure, because an operator will be able to work effectively for
a longer period but experience less strain. In sectioning the donor strip into grafts, the medical technicians at the Wimpole Hair
Restoration Clinic need to work as rapidly, yet carefully as possible.
Additionally, once the follicles are harvested, they cannot be reused and every effort is made
to utilise each follicle within the donor strip. The Mantis units in use at the Wimpole clinic are a
popular choice with the medical technicians and the Surgeon, Dr Michael May.
"The ease of using a Mantis has certainly improved our working conditions and helped us
provide our patients with a more efficient service," he says.
The Mantis viewers allow each technician to prepare up to 500 grafts in one sitting with up
to three technicians preparing grafts for the patient. Because the image clarity is superb and
the working position is optimised, the technicians are able to use virtually all of the harvested
follicles. By using the Mantis microscope the follicles are less likely to be damaged or wasted
and the patient benefits from the placement of the maximum number of grafts per session of
surgery. | 
Copyright 2005 WA Brown Industrial Sales