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Balloon Helped my Hair Regrow

10th November 2007

One minute 32 year old farmer, Kirk Hooper was driving his tractor the next he was lying on the road covered in blood after being hit from behind by a lorry.  He has no recollection of the accident that nearly claimed his life.  The impact of which tore two huge chunks from his scalp.
Kirk from Winchester, Hampshire spent three weeks in hospital following his accident and required a blood transfusion.  Work began to repair the gaping wounds on his scalp using skin grafts from his thigh. Whilst the surgery was successful in closing the gaping holes, hair does not grow on the grafted skin and he was left with two unsightly bald patches on his head.  One was the size of an adult palm, the other slightly smaller. 
It was a bit of a shock when I saw them for the first time because no one had warned me recalls Kirk.  Strangers would often asked what had happened and I wore a cap whenever I could. 
Then last year Kirk heard about a procedure called tissue expansion.  It involves having balloons inserted under the scalp, and over several weeks they are inflated using injected saline solution.  This causes the surrounding skin covered in healthy hair to stretch. Eventually the balloons are removed and the stretched skin can be used to cover the damaged areas of the scalp.
Kirk had a private consultation with Mr Nicholas Parkhouse at the McIndoe Surgical Centre and then treatment commenced in October last year. An incision was made into the scalp and the balloons inserted.  Every week for the next two months Kirk returned to McIndoe to have his injections to slowly inflate and stretch the surrounding skin. Eventually the time came to remove balloons and have surgery to pull the expanded flaps of skin across the bald areas.  Kirk says ‘Afterwards the surgeon bought me a mirror and I could see straight away there was a hell of an improvement.  The bald patches were gone. He’d done a great job.’
Nick Parkhouse the consultant plastic surgeon who carried out the procedure says the technique is an excellent way of treating severe injuries to the head. ‘When skin is taken from another part of the body, such as the thigh for a graft the follicles which allow hair to grow are left behind because they are deeper in the skin. So hair does not grow. Any person in Kirk’s position would have been very self conscious.  It was a very intrusive injury. 
Tissue expansion is used widely in breast reconstruction when there is not enough skin to accommodate a permanent implant.  It only works when there is healthy surrounding skin, which can be stretched. Because the skin remains connected to the donor area’s blood and nerve supply, there is a smaller risk that it will die.
Depending on the area to be reconstructed tissue expansion can take as long as three to four months.  This procedure can be used allover the body, but works particularly well on the scalp.
For further information contact the McIndoe Helpline on 0800 91704922.
Source Daily Express