Torn-Off Ear Grafted On Woman's Foot In World's First Such Surgery

Jinan: In a rare medical breakthrough, Chinese surgeons have successfully performed a world-first operation in which a woman’s severed ear was temporarily grafted onto her foot before being reattached to her head months later.

According to South China Morning Post, the woman's ear was torn off and a large part of her scalp was also suffered several scalp injuries in an accident at her workplace in April. As per the reports, heavy machinery had tore away parts of her scalp, neck and facial skin. 

Doctors tried to reattach the ear to the head of the woman, however, due to extensive damage to her blood vessels and tissues, doctors were unable to immediately perform the surgery since the skull tissue needed time to heal.

To keep the ear alive while her scalp healed, a team led by microsurgery expert Qiu Shenqiang at Shandong Provincial Hospital in Jinan decided to graft the ear onto the top of her foot. The surgeons said this decision was taken because the arteries and veins in the foot were of a suitable calibre and were highly compatible with those of the ear. The thinness of the tissues on the foot were also similar to the thinness on the head.

The surgery took 10 long hours and involved reconnecting extremely fine blood vessels measuring just 0.2–0.3 mm. Doctors later faced complications when blood circulation to the ear was disrupted, forcing them to perform manual bloodletting over five days to save the tissue.

On the other hand, the woman's scalp was restored by grafting skin taken from her stomach.

After more than five months of recovery and reconstruction, surgeons successfully reattached the ear to the woman’s head in a six-hour surgery in October. The patient, identified only as Sun, has since been discharged, with doctors saying her facial structure and tissue function have largely recovered. She will undergo a few minor cosmetic procedures in the coming months.

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