Chinese surgeons at Shandong Provincial Hospital have carried out what they describe as the world’s first operation to temporarily graft a woman’s severed ear onto her foot, preserving the tissue before reattaching it to her head.

 

 

 

Chinese surgeons at Shandong Provincial Hospital have carried out what they describe as the world’s first operation to temporarily graft a woman’s severed ear onto her foot, preserving the tissue before reattaching it to her head.

 

The patient lost her ear and part of her scalp in an April workplace accident involving heavy machinery, leaving extensive damage to skin and blood vessels.

Surgeons grafted the ear to the foot because its arteries and veins were compatible, with the initial procedure lasting 10 hours and involving vessels just 0.2–0.3 mm wide.

After more than five months of recovery, the ear was successfully reattached in October, and the patient has since been discharged with most facial function restored.