Hepatitis B and C, HIV, a full blood count, clotting times and glucose are the standard panel. Here is what each result changes about the day of your operation.
Six tests are standard before any FUE: hepatitis B surface antigen, hepatitis C antibody, HIV, a full blood count, coagulation times and fasting glucose. A positive hepatitis or HIV result does not exclude you from surgery; it changes instrument handling and scheduling. A clinic that never asks is a clinic that does not know who was operated on in that room before you. The blood count catches anaemia, which matters across an eight-hour procedure with steady small blood loss.
Prothrombin time and INR tell us how your blood behaves when we open several thousand small wounds in one day. Aspirin, most anti-inflammatories, vitamin E, fish oil and ginkgo all extend bleeding time and are stopped ten days before. Prescribed anticoagulants are a conversation with your own doctor, never something to stop alone. Excessive bleeding does not only complicate the operating day; it lifts grafts out of their channels and lowers survival.
Fasting glucose and HbA1c are checked because poorly controlled diabetes slows wound healing and raises infection risk in both the donor and the recipient area. In patients with diffuse thinning, and in most women, we add ferritin, TSH, free T4, vitamin D and B12, because iron deficiency and thyroid disease cause shedding that no surgery will fix. Finding a ferritin of twelve before booking has saved several patients an operation they did not need.
You can have the panel taken at home and send the results, or have blood drawn at our Şişli hospital on the morning of surgery with results back within two hours. The second option is included in the €1,800 package rather than billed separately. Results older than three months are repeated. If a value falls outside the safe range we postpone, and the fact that the building has intensive care on site is precisely why we can be strict about it.
No. Hepatitis B or C carriers are operated on with adjusted scheduling and instrument handling. Risk comes from an undisclosed result, because it removes the clinic's ability to protect you and the next patient.
Finasteride continues without interruption. Minoxidil is stopped about a week before and restarted roughly a month after, once the recipient area has healed, because it irritates fresh channels.