In world first, Chinese surgeons save patient’s ear with graft onto foot

Chinese surgeons have performed the world’s first operation to graft a patient’s torn-off ear onto her foot before putting it back in place.

The woman’s ear was torn off in a workplace accident in April that also ripped away a large part of her scalp, medical news platform Med-J reported on Monday.

Qiu Shenqiang, deputy director of the microsurgery unit at Shandong Provincial Hospital in Jinan, said the woman’s injuries had been caused by heavy machinery and left her with life-threatening injuries.

The scalp, neck and facial skin had been torn and “split into multiple fragments” while the ear had been “completely severed along with the scalp”.

When the woman arrived at the hospital, its hand, foot and reconstructive microsurgery team immediately tried to repair the scalp using standard methods.

But the severe damage the accident had caused to her scalp tissue and vascular network meant that this approach failed.

  

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