According to Foxnews.com, surgeons used
rib cartilage to reconstruct a woman's ear and part of her skull after cancer
destroyed them.
Sherrie Walter, 42, from Bel Air, Md., had basal cell
carcinoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer, which forced doctors to remove
almost her entire left ear and parts of her nearby skull. Her parotid salivary
gland and inner ear canal also were removed.
"I didn't know how aggressive
basal cell carcinoma could be," Walter said in a news release. Walter's cancer
was diagnosed in 2008, but doctors removed her ear in 2010 when the cancer
returned.
"When my doctors told me
reconstruction was possible, I thought it was too good to be true; it sounded
like science fiction," she added.
Dr. Patrick Byrne an associate
professor in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine, said he has performed hundreds of ear and nose
reconstructions – but the removal of Walter's necessary skull bone structures,
face and neck skin limited his options. She was not a candidate for a prosthetic
ear.
Instead, Byrne used pieces of Walters'
rib cartilage, carving and suturing the skin with the help of a mold of
Walters' right ear. The skinless ear was implanted into Walters' forearm, where
it connected to her blood vessels. This allowed the skin to stretch and grow
for four months.
In January, Byrne - with the help
of an intra-operative laser – was able to affix three of the largest blood
vessels within the ear into complimentary blood vessels in the head.
"Patients must have the physical and emotional
courage, and the patience, to deal with these exhausting procedures, and to
recover and re-energize so they can proceed from one surgery to the next,"
Byrne said.
