21/04/2026
This remarkable case occurred in 2013 in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China, involving a 22-year-old man named Xiaolian. After a car accident in August 2012, Xiaolian did not receive timely treatment, resulting in a severe infection that destroyed his nasal cartilage, making standard reconstruction impossible.
Surgeons at Fujian Medical University Union Hospital employed a pioneering tissue engineering technique to grow a new nose. Surgeons took cartilage from Xiaolian's ribs to sculpt a new nasal scaffold. They inserted this scaffold under the skin of his forehead. The forehead was chosen because of its rich blood supply, which allows the tissue to remain alive and develop, and because its skin texture closely matches that of a nose.
A tissue expander (a type of balloon) was used under the forehead skin to stretch it and create the necessary space for the new structure. Over roughly nine months, the new nose was nurtured by the forehead's blood vessels, developing into a fully shaped, living organ.
Once the new nose was mature and healthy, surgeons planned to move it from the forehead to the center of his face, rotating it while keeping it attached to the blood supply, and finally separating it once it established new blood vessels in the new position.🥀
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