It’s not a nose job gone wrong, if that’s what you think. This Chinese man did grow nose on his forehead as a replacement to his old one for a reconstruction technique.
Xiaolian, 22, was involved in a car accident last year which damaged his nose. He underwent basic medical treatment during the time instead of a plastic surgery due to financial challenges. A few months later, his condition worsened as his nose got infected corroding its cartilages making it impossible to reconstruct.
Surgeons in Fuzhou City, in Fujian province, came up with an idea to give the patient a nose. For nine months, they will grow a nose on his forehead and will use it as a replacement to his corroded nose once it is ready for implant. Surprisingly, the patient agreed.
But why not grow it on another part of the body? Dr. David Cangello, an attending plastic surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital and Manhattan, Eye Ear and Throat Hospital in New York, explained it to LiveScience. "We like to use similar tissues to reconstruct organs within the same area," he said.
The forehead is also close to the nose so the move will be easier to perform once the new nose is ready. It will save them time from disconnecting and reconnecting the blood vessels so they can focus more on positioning the new nose on the right spot.
The process of growing a nose on the forehead is tedious work. In order to make space for his new nose, the doctors stretched the man’s skin under the forehead using tissue expanders. Using screws and plates, they formed a shape of the nose. Afterwards, they took a few cartilages from his ribs to fill in the nose.
Once the nose is ready, the surgeons will rotate the new nose from the forehead to its real nose position. There will be a small scar to be left on the patient’s forehead though which will remind him that he once had a nose on his forehead.
