Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Turkish Surgeon Reconstructs Ears for Man from His Mother’s Rib Cartilage | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Ankara- For the first time in the world, Turkish surgeons made a successful ear transplant in a human. The young man from Gaziantep, southern Turkey who underwent the implantation was born without ears.

A team from the medicine school of Gaziantep University succeeded in transplanting the left ear for the young Omit Gül, 22.

Doctors took a sample of cartilage from Gul’s mother 18 months ago. Then, they reconstructed a full ear and transplanted it in the young man’s head.

Dr. Mehmet Mutaf said the surgery is a first in the world in which an ear has been made using the cartilage tissue of another person. He noted that the world had previously witnessed operations of shoulder and jaw transplants through cartilages.

Dr. Mutaf added that the reconstruction and transplant of the ear took over two years and a half, and that the cartilage grew under the patient’s skin of his thoracic cavity for a while.

After the accomplishment, the medical team has concentrated its efforts to treat the hearing problem of the patient, while the preparation for the transplant of the right ear is ongoing.