Hair Restoration Society Completes Survey, Results Support Recognition as Medical Discipline

(PRWEB) - Geneva, November 2005

An estimated 168,155 hair transplant procedures were performed worldwide last year; 87,987 in the U.S., according to a recent international survey conducted by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS).

These were among the findings of the ISHRS 2005 Practice Census. The ISHRS is a non-profit voluntary medical association of hair restoration physicians and surgical assistants. Founded in 1993, the organization is the first and largest international society to promote continuing quality improvement and medical education for physicians in the field of hair restoration surgery and hair loss treatment.

"This survey has resulted in a better understanding of this relatively new medical discipline of Hair Restoration Surgery," said E. Antonio Mangubat, MD, immediate past-president of the ISHRS.

In analyzing this data, member physicians are seeing an increase in the sophistication and expectations of patients with hair loss.

"Patients and physicians realize that effective hair restoration represents a process that can typically combine a variety of treatments and several surgical procedures," added Paul T. Rose, MD, JD, current president of the ISHRS. "The ISHRS is committed to educating patients and bringing the highest levels of medical standards to this discipline."

Several other points of interest from the survey include:
1. There is a significant interest in eyebrow and eyelash transplants.
2. Forty (40) is the average age for men and women seeking hair restoration treatments.
3. Ninety-seven (97) percent of ISHRS member-physicians prescribe Propecia ® (finasteride), a figure that indicates broad acceptance of a multi-disciplinary approach to hair restoration that can include invasive and non-invasive hair loss treatments.

The growing acceptance of hair restoration surgery as a medical discipline is also reflected by increasing media coverage. Alan J. Bauman, MD in Boca Raton, Florida, for example, was recently profiled on NBC's Dateline, which compared and documented the effectiveness of several modern physician-directed hair restoration treatments including hair transplantation.

In addition, other ISHRS members, Craig L Ziering, DO of Beverly Hills, California and William R. Rassman, MD of Los Angeles, California, were recently featured as surgeons on ABC's Extreme Makeover.