Restoration Robotics, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIR), the global leader in robotic hair restoration, today announced results from a real-world evaluation study.

The new ARTAS iX™ Robotic Hair Restoration System demonstrates clinical efficiency in hair harvesting and implantation, according to results of a new real-world evaluation study released by Restoration Robotics. ARTAS iX™ is the only intelligent solution to offer precise, minimally invasive, repeatable harvesting with simultaneous sitemaking and implantation functionality in one compact platform.

Hair restoration surgeon and founder of the Berman Skin Institute in California, David A. Berman, MD, FAAD, was one of the first users of the ARTAS iX System. He conducted the study and developed a poster entitled “Robotic, AI-assisted Follicular Unit Excision And Implantation For Hair Restoration With ARTAS iX” presented at the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery Annual Meeting this month.

The case study on a 50-year-old Caucasian male with advanced androgenetic alopecia, evaluated the ARTAS iX System’s success in both assisting in the harvesting of follicular units (grafts containing one to four hairs), as well as in follicular unit excision (FUE) during hair transplantation surgery.  Key results include:

• 1,042 follicular unit grafts were harvested at an average harvesting speed of 1,093 grafts/hour, with peaks as high as 1318 grafts/hour.
• Nearly 800 (796) grafts were implanted robotically at an average rate of 468 grafts/hour, with peak rates at 794 grafts/hour.
• No adverse events or post-operative complications were reported.

“Manual FUE is a widely-used and clinically proven technique, however the cases are arduous, requiring thousands of precise repetitive motions to accurately extract and carefully implant individual grafts,” says Dr. Berman. “Aiding the clinician throughout the entire procedure, ARTAS iX mitigates clinician fatigue, increases throughput relative to manual procedures, and avoids damaging the hair follicle through use of the robotic implanter.”

These results suggest that the robotic, image-guided ARTAS iX System provides a practical alternative to manual FUE procedures, whose limitations include human fatigue, pain and discomfort associated with long, repetitive procedures and capricious human vision that can potentially lead to human error during manual hair transplant procedures.   

“This case study provides real-world clinical evidence demonstrating the clinical efficiency of our new state-of-the-art ARTAS iX System and further supports the use of robotics to overcome limitations of manual hair restoration procedures,” Ryan Rhodes, CEO of Restoration Robotics, says. “We know that minimizing the amount of operative time is beneficial to both the patient and the physician.  This case study shows that ARTAS iX provides clinically-efficient surgical workflows while reducing the total case time for these procedures. We look forward to developing more evaluative studies to continue showcasing the advantages of our latest technology.”