Dr. Akaki Tsilosani

Dr Akaki Tsilosani founded the A. Tsilosani Hair Transplant Institute in Tbilisi, Georgia 1. The institute is at 1 Michael Tchiaureli Exit, Tbilisi 2. His ISHRS profile says he graduated from Tbilisi State Medical University in 1989 and worked as a general surgeon before moving into hair transplant surgery in 1999 3. It says he has performed more than 10,000 hair transplant procedures 3. His Russian-market site gives 1998 as the start of his hair transplant experience and claims more than 12,000 patients 4. That site lists Prague, Tbilisi, Moscow, Dubai, Kuwait, Minsk, Yerevan, Kyiv-Lviv and Melbourne as cities where transplants are performed 5.

The institute says it offers FUT, shaven and unshaven FUE, combined FUT and FUE, body hair transplants and long hair transplants 1. It describes long hair transplants as transplanting grafts with hair 3 cm or longer 6. His ISHRS profile says he began long hair transplants in 2010 and that they are now a significant part of his practice 3. In FUE, the institute says the surgeon scores each graft with a rotating punch and an assistant extracts it with forceps 7. In FUT, it says experienced surgical assistants dissect the strip under stereomicroscopes 8. The site does not say who makes the incisions or places the grafts 7. The institute lists among its equipment an FUE machine and punches made to his own patent 9. His ISHRS profile describes a 9,688-graft FUT session in 2012 and a density of 100 grafts per cm2 in 2008 3.

Neither site publishes prices 10. The Russian-market site offers an individual cost estimate through a form 10. The FUT page says FUT costs less than FUE because it is quicker and less labour-intensive for the doctor 8.

The institute offers a free online consultation 2. The Russian-market site says each patient gets a written guarantee that the transplanted hair will grow for life, with a full refund otherwise; the terms are not published 4. The institute says its building has three surgical theatres and hotel rooms for patients 1.

He is an ISHRS Fellow Member, and his profile gives 2008 as the year he joined 3. The institute says he is also a member of the Asian Association of Hair Restoration Surgeons, the American Academy of Aesthetic Medicine and the Georgian association of plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgeons 1.