St.Vincent’s Private Hospital is one of the first private hospitals in Dublin to be able to offer its patients access to a scalp cooling service to help combat hair loss as a result of some forms of chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy induced hair loss, although reversible, is one of the most distressing side effects for patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Scalp cooling is a method used to prevent or reduce the amount of hair loss for patients receiving chemotherapy. Research studies have shown that scalp cooling is often effective across a wide range of chemotherapy drugs.

Scalp cooling lowers the temperature of the scalp, by restricting the amount of blood reaching the hair follicles this protects them from the effects of the chemotherapy drugs carried in the blood stream.

Many patients have found scalp cooling very successful. The success of scalp cooling however, cannot be guaranteed as a number of factors can affect the outcome such as age, hair type and chemotherapy treatment.

Scalp cooling is not suitable for all patients so your medical oncologist can discuss this option with your doctor or nurse.