The influence of 3% hydrogen peroxide on the survival rate of hair grafts when used as an antiseptic solution for surgical wound care: Experience with five patients

BACKGROUND: A solution of 3% hydrogen peroxide is one of the most widely used antiseptics to decrease bacterial colonization. OBJECTIVE: We performed this study to evaluate influence of 3% hydrogen peroxide on the survival rate of hair grafts. METHODS: We designed two templates on both frontoparietal recesses of five patients with male pattern alopecia. Follicular units containing single hairs were obtained from occiput. We grafted approximately 50 follicular units on each template. The gauze with normal saline was applied on the left template and the gauze with 3% hydrogen peroxide on the right template for 5 minutes. This procedure was repeated four times at 30-minute intervals. The number of surviving hairs of each template was counted 3 and 10 months after hair transplantation. RESULTS There was no statistically significant difference in the mean survival rate of the grafts between hydrogen peroxide and normal saline 3 and 10 months after transplantation (Mann-Whitney test, p>.05). CONCLUSION: We think surgical wound care with 3% hydrogen peroxide during hair restoration surgery does not affect the survival rate of hair grafts when compared with normal saline. We also need further evaluation with larger participants to overcome small sample size and to gather other information.