Dubai: Forget walls, a man in China has arms that can hear too.
Thanks to a breakthrough procedure, an “ear”, can be seen growing on the arm of a patient who lost his right ear in an accident.
The patient — identified only as Ji and in his late thirties — underwent numerous plastic surgery operations to restore his facial skin.
“I lost one ear. I have always felt that I am not complete,” Ji said in a report by China Daily.
That is when Doctor Guo Shuzhong came to his rescue.
A renowned surgeon who also carried out China’s first face transplant in 2006, Dr Shuzhong will be undertaking the procedure along with a team of specialists at the first affiliated hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University.
Artificial ear grown on patient's arm to replace ear lost in traffic accident in China's Xi'an pic.twitter.com/RLaNcXxExm— CCTVNEWS (@cctvnews) November 9, 2016
Dr Shuzhong has now devised a way to grow an ear on his arm — a process that will be completed in three stages.
First, a skin expander was placed in Ji’s arm to make space for the ear and water was injected to increase the volume under the skin.
This was followed by the planting of a cartilage — which was taken from his ribs — in the space created.
Dr Shuzhong said this was the most difficult and complicated part of the surgery.
The final stage, which will be carried out after four months, involves the removal of the ear from the forearm. This will then be attached to his head using a technique called vascular anastomosis — a procedure that involves the sewing together of two blood vessels that are taken from different parts of the body.
Though the final stage is yet to be completed, Ji says he’s excited about the prospect of getting his ear back.
“When I glances down at the ear [on my arm], it looks just like the old one,” he said.
