DOHA: A Qatari surgeon, Dr Saeed Al Galadhari, was part of a team that recently conducted a complex ear surgery in Sweden, to implant an ear, the Al Sharq daily reports.
According to the report, the team of Swedish surgeons performed a surgery that was the first of its kind in Europe: to implant an ear made of human cartilage, on an adult. The cartilage from the person's chest was first removed and grafted in his arm to develop. Later, the cartilage was scalped into the shape of an ear, complete with nerves and blood vessels. Surgeons removed the graft and implanted it as the ear.
Dr Saeed explained, one out of every 6,000 humans are born without a ear due to various reasons. In such cases, a surgery of the type performed in Sweden, can help. He said, earlier, such victims would have to fit plastic, rubber of silicone ears for cosmetic purposes. However, such an artificial ear would become a source of embarrassment to the patient since it could fall off easily and had no real use except to improve the person's appearance. Over a period of time, surgeons around the world found a better alternative. They would attach an artificial ear surgically.
This method too had its flaws: Often, the patient would develop severe inflammation since the human body would reject artificial material. It was then when medical experts developed the concept of taking a cartilage from the human chest, shaping it with scalpels into the shape of an ear, grafting it into the arm to allow it to develop nerves and blood vessels and later, removing it to implant as a ear.
Prior to the surgery in Sweden, such procedures were performed only on children. Hence, the feat, he said, was a rare one. Dr Saeed recently visited Doha.
© The Peninsula 2006
