Anesthesia

Hair loss

03/08/2007 10:56PM

Question:

Hi, I`m a 49 yr old female in Aug 06 I was in the hospital for 22 days with a bowel resection. Jan 07 I had an upper endoscopy and now my already thin hair is dry and falling out. Now March 07 I`m need to have the test done again and they are doing a colonoscopy at the same time. Is my hair going to fall out even more [the scalp is already showing] and is there anything I can do or the anesthesiologist can do ???

Answer:

Telogen effluvium is the phenomenon of widespread hair loss occuring over a short space of time. This is something that can happen after surgery or after severe metabolic stress. Surgery definitely fits into that category and because major surgery is always done with anesthesia some people will atrribute the hair loss to the anesthesia.
In summary, there does not seem to be any strong evidence that anesthesia all by itself causes hair loss. A large variety of things are associated with hair loss, including several diseases and hundreds of different drugs.
Unfortunately I don't believe there's anything specific that your anesthesiologist will be able to do to limit any further loss of hair. However in most cases of telogen effluvium the hair grows back!

The question of hair loss after surgery or anesthesia is one I've dealt with in the past. Plese refer to the link below.

Related Resources:

Does anesthesia cause hair loss?

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Response by:

Gareth S Kantor, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Anesthesiology
University Hospitals
School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University