New Surgical Technique Offers Hope to Folliculitis Decalvans Patients

Guiding wound contraction with high-tension suture guards results in full remission for 5 patients with rare scalp inflammation.

The lack of long-term solutions in the challenging treatment of folliculitis decalvans (FD) led Sanusi Umar MD, and colleagues from Dr. U Hair and Skin Clinic to develop and patent a novel device that holds potential for sustained FD remission.

Dubbed the Athena Suture Guards, the device is a high-tension suture guard that guides wound contraction and minimizes tissue damage during surgical excision.

A clinical study of five patients, including four men and one woman who had failed various conventional treatments, found that all patients experienced complete remission, with no instances of disease recurrence noted during the 10–24-month follow-up period.

The study is published in the Clinical Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology Journal.

Though rare, FD resists conventional treatments and remains a major source of frustration and suffering for affected patients. Dr. Umar, the study’s lead author, attributes the teams’ results to the novel method of closing excision wounds with guarded high-tension sutures and using second-intention healing. Dr. Umar hopes that the five FD patients’ outcomes will encourage broader research to validate the research teams’ approach. "While our case series offers promising insights, further validation through larger controlled studies is essential to establish the effectiveness of our technique," he says in a news release.