A man in China has a nose growing from the left side of his forehead – that is not a misprint. What makes the story even stranger is the fact that the nose will be used in a transplant to replace his currently damaged nose.
Reuters reported on the 22-year-old man identified only as Xiaolian, who will be undergoing surgery to replace his original nose, which was damaged in a car accident last year.
Because he didn’t get medical attention on the nose, it became infected and therefore inoperable by surgeons. Using an innovative procedure, doctors reconstructed his nose using skin tissue expander along with cartilage from his ribs, and has been growing from his forehead for the past nine months.
From Reuters:
A new nose, grown by surgeons on Xiaolian’s forehead, is pictured before being transplanted to replace the original nose, which is infected and deformed, at a hospital in Fuzhou, Fujian province September 24, 2013. Xiaolian, 22, neglected his nasal trauma following a traffic accident on August, 2012. After several months, the infection had corroded the cartilage of the nose, making it impossible for surgeons to fix it leaving no alternative but to grow a new nose for replacement.
The new nose is grown by placing a skin tissue expander onto Xiaolian’s forehead, cutting it into the shape of a nose and planting a cartilage taken from his ribs. The surgeons said that the new nose is in good shape and the transplant surgery could be performed soon, local media reported.
Check out a video from the Daily Mail featuring Xiaolian and his surgeon. Hit the following pages to see the full screen shots of the Xiaolian’s nose.
[Props to Gawker]
—
