During cancer treatment, a woman from France lost a large portion of her nose, so surgeons grew one on her forearm and transplanted it to her face.
A Toulouse woman lost a part of her nose in 2013 after being treated for nose cancer with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. She tried reconstruction and prosthetics, but they didn’t work. However, thanks to a ground-breaking medical procedure, she now has a new nose, one that she grows herself.
Evening Standard reported that a custom nose was implanted on her forearm, using 3D-printed biomaterial to replace cartilage. She then received a skin graft from her temple to cover the replacement nose. The appendage was allowed to grow for two months before being transplanted to her face.
In a post on Facebook, Toulouse University Hospital (CHU) shared photos of the new nose growing on the woman’s forearm. The hospital announced that the new nose was successfully placed on Tuesday.
“Today, the transplant is a success. After placement in the forearm and colonization of the medical device for two months, the device could be transplanted into the nasal region and successfully revascularized using micro-surgery by anastomoses of the blood vessels. She is doing very well and continues to be monitored,” according to the Facebook caption translated from French.
According to the Evening Standard, the doctors performed microsurgery to connect blood vessels in the arm skin and the woman’s face.
“After 10 days of hospitalization and three weeks of antibiotics, the patient is doing very well,” the medics told the outlet, adding, “This type of reconstruction had never before been performed on such a fragile and poorly vascularised area and was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the medical teams with the company Cerhum, a Belgian manufacturer of medical devices specializing in bone reconstruction”.
Medics told the outlet “After 10 days of hospitalization and three weeks of antibiotics, the patient is doing very well”. “This type of reconstruction had never before been performed on such a fragile and poorly vascularised area and was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the medical teams with the company Cerhum, a Belgian manufacturer of medical devices specializing in bone reconstruction”.
The hospital has also said that this new technique is even capable of overcoming some of the limitations of other techniques.
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