The University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) will start performing hair transplants as a form of plastic surgery for bald persons by the end of the year.  

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines hair transplant as a surgical procedure where hair is moved from one part of the body (the donor area, often the back or sides of the scalp) to a bald, thinning or recipient area.

The Director of Medical Affairs at the UGMC, Dr Baffoe Gyan, said the centre was in the final stage of escalating the innovation to the public after successfully piloting it.

In an interview with Graphic Online's Timothy Ngnenbe last Friday, he said the venture formed part of the vision to make the facility a world-class centre for all medical solutions.

He said the surgeon leading the hair transplant innovation underwent training in New York and returned home to practise it, “and we are getting results.”

"The trial was done on our own doctor, whose hair is very fine now.

What we are left with is to escalate it to the rest of the population, but before you open the service here, we need to make sure that we have enough doctors to cover the service such that if demand becomes too high, we will be able to handle it," he said. 

According to the WHO, baldness or hair loss could be caused by a variety of factors, including genetics, hormonal changes, medical conditions, stress and certain medications.

The world body further states that the most common type of baldness, androgenetic alopecia (also known as male or female pattern baldness), is largely hereditary and related to ageing and hormones.

Dr Gyan said a team of medical staff was being built and groomed to get the required expertise for a full rollout of the service.

He added that the team of young medical staff at the UGMC, who were being groomed for the hair transplant, were ambitious and poised to deliver when the needed support was provided. 

Quaternary status

He said the UGMC's ultimate goal was to become a quaternary hospital – a facility that provides the most specialised and advanced medical care — often considered an extension of tertiary care.

“For us to get there, we need to do things that are commonly not done. We are the only institution that runs the three arms of medical care, and if Ghana wants a hospital that will stand the test of time, let us pay attention to UGMC,” he said.

He said it was in that respect that the centre had started undertaking trailblazing medical solutions that were not commonly done in other hospitals.  

"We did Catheter ablation for some patients two weeks ago; a month ago, we did cases of hole-in-heart; and just today (July 25), we have done laparoscopic gastric sleeve surgery.

And from what we know, this is the first of such surgery in Ghana," he said. 

Other innovations

Dr Baffoe said other innovations explored by the UGMC included bone marrow transplant, "and we are doing kidney transplant already."

"We have done about eight kidney transplants, but we are not making too much noise about it yet," he revealed.

Human resource

He encouraged Ghanaians abroad with expertise in innovative medical or clinical solutions to make themselves available and help build on local capacity to serve people.

“It is our goal that by 2027, we should be able to do almost everything medically possible, so we need all experts, home and abroad, to be part of this journey,” he said.