A Human-Factor–Driven Implanter Design for Prolonged Hair Transplantation

Jae Hyun Park Dana Plastic Surgery Clinic, Seoul, Republic of KoreaCorrespondence: Jae Hyun Park, Dana Plastic Surgery Clinic, Seoul, Republic of Korea, Email [email protected]: Hair transplantation is a prolonged microsurgical procedure involving thousands of repetitive implantation movements performed under high magnification. In this setting, small ergonomic inefficiencies and orientation errors may accumulate over time, potentially affecting procedural flow, operator fatigue, and consistency of graft placement. While sharp implanters are widely used in contemporary hair transplantation, many existing designs primarily emphasize mechanical sharpness, loading capacity, or implantation speed, with comparatively limited attention paid to human-factor engineering during prolonged implantation. This study describes a human-factor–driven methodology for sharp implanter design, focusing on three core principles: error visibility, redundant orientation guidance, and workflow continuity. The proposed design integrates visual, tactile, and mechanical cues to facilitate rapid size recognition and consistent bevel orientation under magnification. Structural features are incorporated to reduce unintended component loosening and to enable one-touch modular disassembly for efficient needle exchange. Rather than demonstrating clinical superiority, this methodology presents a system-level design framework intended to support consistency, efficiency, and ergonomic stability during prolonged hair transplantation procedures.Keywords: hair transplantation, sharp implanter, human factors engineering, surgical ergonomics, microsurgical instrumentation, methodology