Due to a ground-breaking medical procedure, a woman from Toulouse was able to get a new nose. Surgeons in France have successfully grown a nose on a woman's arm and transplanted it on her face after she lost a large portion of her own during cancer treatment.
The woman was treated for nasal cavity cancer with radiotherapy and chemotherapy in 2013 and at that time, she lost a part of her nose. Despite reconstruction attempts and prosthetics, the woman could not get her lost nose and had to spend years living without the organ. But this new technique makes it possible to overcome certain limitations presented by other techniques.
According to reports, a custom nose made from 3D-printed biomaterial to replace cartilage, was made for her and then implanted on her forearm. The appendage was allowed to grow for two months following which it was transplanted to her face. The doctors used microsurgery and connected blood vessels in the arm skin to blood vessels in the woman's face.
Toulouse University Hospital shared pictures on Facebook of the nose growing on her forearm. The hospital announced that the new nose was successfully grafted to the woman's face on Tuesday. They wrote, "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."
"After 10 days of hospitalisation and three weeks of antibiotics, the patient is doing very well," the medics told a media 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."
