The Chinese are well known for their adeptness in manufacturing proficiency. Think about any product and be rest assured that it will be produced in China and that too at a minimal cost.
Nobody however would have imagined that the most populous country in the world would also manufacture a nose on the forehead on a living human being. The stupendous feat has been achieved in Fuzhou, Fujian province of China.
The new or the second nose will be transplanted at the original position soon. The man under treatment, nicknamed ‘Xiaolian’ met with an accident in 2012 and suffered gruesome nasal injuries.
At that point of time he received only basic medical care and did not opt for any plastic surgery owing to financial constraints.
Reconstructive Plastic Surgery
Soon thereafter, his condition deteriorated. The treating doctors diagnosed that his nasal cartilage had started corroding and therefore nasal reconstruction was not possible.
This crisis gave rise to an unprecedented idea, one that had never been tried in any of the countries throughout the world.
Thanks to the expertise and dedication of the team of doctors, 22-year-old Xiaolian has a new nose on his forehead now.
The nose, grown with the help of tissue expanders and cartilage harvested from the ribs, is nine months old now and is fully ‘ripe’ to be transplanted. The procedure is a case of adroit reconstructive plastic surgery.
“We have gone through the hardest step and now it is not difficult to carry out transplant surgery,” said Guo Zhihui, Director of Plastic Surgery Department of Xiehe Hospital Affiliated to Fujian Medical University.
Post transplant, Xiaolian will lead a normal life.
While such cases are indeed few and far between, a similar case was reported from Britain last year wherein a cancer patient who lost his nose due to the disease had a replacement nose grown on one of his arms.
The medical procedure not only provided the 53-year-old man the sense of smell but also bestowed a new nose that was pretty similar to the original one.
