Replacement ear grown on an arm

A woman whose exterior ear was removed during her fight with cancer has grown a replacement ear made from starter-tissue harvested from her rib, which was cultured and scaffolded on her arm. Once the ear was ripe, it was removed from her arm and affixed to the side of her head.

“I thought of this exact strategy many years before and really was looking for the right patient to try it on,” said renowned plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Patrick Byrne.
Byrne used cartilage from Walters’ ribs to stitch together a new ear matching her right ear. He then implanted it under the skin of her forearm, where it grew for months.

..Byrne later surgically attached the ear and its blood vessels. Then surgery Tuesday added shape and detail to the ear.

Hopkins Doctors Grow New Ear On Woman’s Arm (via /.)

(Image: Johns Hopkins)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: anatomy • health • transhuman

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austinhamman

when i first heard it i thought “um i think you missed”
but now its more like “that’s freaky” growing an arm on your arm that has to be weird…
KBert

RIPE!!! Yee-haw!
evanplus

How long until this is adapted as a purely cosmetic procedure?
- Preston Sturges
  
  Actually randomly placed extra nipples are pretty common, maybe that’ll catch on.
- http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog
  
  You just sent me down to the archives (i.e. a filing cabinet) with your comment. I have a copy of a ‘zine called “Going Gaga,” in which there was a piece called “Dada Surgery.” Examples:
  
  “Remember: There’s no tissue rejection when it’s your own body.”
  
  and
  
  “Pointed up on the chin, an ear could be used to collect any spilled soup.”
  
  This was written by one Patch Adams, apparently the Patch Adams, and published by Gareth Branwyn who makes appearances ’round these parts.
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  It’s like plastic surgery is going from the age of removal to the age of addition.
Alpacaman

I love the ‘ripe’ description. Adds a whole new level of mad scientist.
Frank Diekman

As a bonus, the patient can horrify people with a freakish arm ear!
http://www.facebook.com/larratt Shannon Larratt

Hello Stelarc
http://www.facebook.com/larratt Shannon Larratt

http://stelarc.org/?catID=20242
Preston Sturges

It was more disturbing when they first grew the mock human ear on a rat. Now if they grew a rat on his arm and a human ear on the rat, that would freak people the fudge out.

But growing an ear of corn would also be pretty good.
unclemike

I love living in the future.
- Glen Able
  
  Although in the UK, the NHS just give you a wooden ear with an elastic band.
  - theophrastvs
    
    You got an elastic band?! You bleed’n toff!! When we wuz wee kiddies we ‘ad our ears stuck on wif roof’n tar and we thought it was @#$’n Christmas day!
    
    ..etc
PhosPhorious

“You’ll have to speak up. . . there’s an ear on my forearm.”
- howaboutthisdangit
  
  Talk to the hand?
  - RedShirt77
    
    Someone had to make that joke, I am just glad it wasn’t me.
http://vincenzoravina.tumblr.com/ Vincenzo Ravina

How long have I been asleep?
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Col-McGillveray/100001601736627 Col McGillveray
  
  How long have I lived in a drum?
BookGuy

At first I thought, “Why the arm? You use and move those all the time–that seems unnecessarily inconvenient.” Then I tried to think of a better place to put it and failed.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Holmen/562023961 Robert Holmén
  
  How about growing an ear where one would normally have an ear?
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Probably poor blood flow.
  - theophrastvs
    
    cuz there’s already a nose growing there (…thought that would be obvious)
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Is that a Mike Tyndall joke?
    - awjt
      
      I was thinking there was already an ass or an elbow there, but hey.
  - RedShirt77
    
    If you need a new ear, your current ear probably has a partially funtional ear or a whole lot of scar tissue.
  - Syndaryl
    
    You have tight skin on your head, so that’s awkward. They’d have to stretch it with a subdermal baloon first, and that’s painful and long, and doesn’t help the bloodflow.
    
    Then you’d have this half-formed lump on the side of your face out where you can’t put a long sleave over it or conveniently bandage it, for the weeks it takes to fully develop. Which is socially awkward to say the least, and from the looks of things bandaging is necessary.
    
    And as mentioned, if you need a new ear, your existing ear-place has a damaged substrate by definition.
- RedShirt77
  
  The love handle would be better. Always under a shirt. etc.
Chuck

I misread that as “replacement earworm grown on arm.”
sam1148

It’s part of the right to ear arms.
- Felton / Moderator
  
  Hear, hear!
BarBarSeven

I literally just finished eating when I saw this. Please PayPal me like $10 to cover a “recovery” meal, okay? Thanks!
Ed Ligget. Tuba.

I know there’s a Nantucket joke in here somewhere but I’m just too tired to make it.
Maxwell Lucas

It’s like that mouse!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacanti_mouse
- Brainspore
  
  I thought of the mouse too, but it appears that this ear is actually just a bunch of other tissues surgically assembled into the shape of an ear rather than a genuine clone-job. Still very impressive though.
http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke

How hard is this? Could someone rich who really could use this but doesn’t really NEED it, say, Mick Foley, reasonably have this done?
Preston Sturges

Can you hear me now?
Preston Sturges

Some people would have already had it pierced 3 or 4 times.
Preston Sturges

Seriously though, grafted penises should be popular both for the transgendered, reconstruction after various forms of reconstruction after accidents and cancer, and general slapstick.
- Syndaryl
  
  Absolutely, but there’s a lot more to a penis (or a vulva and vagina) than an ear. All that enervated tissue for one, and the spongy erectile tissue isn’t cartilage, it’s actually some comparatively elaborate stuff. But this is a big step forward for that.
  
  I know somewhere in east europe actually already did a “first draft” of growing a replacement penis for a man with cancer under the skin of his flank IIRC. If I recall the article correctly, it wasn’t really going to be fully functional, and his wife found the whole growth process very disturbing and moved out before the surgery. He was hoping she’d move back in afterwards.
  - Preston Sturges
    
    If you had a penis on one hand and a vulva on the other……
    - Syndaryl
      
      You’d be an internet star in 30 seconds flat?
Brainspore

TALK TO THE HAND.
- denimgirl
  
  Haha!Literally!;)
Rindan

I would totally put a big ass gauge erring on it. What is anyone going to do about it? Call me a freak?
professor

Looks like CCR will need to change the song to “Heard it on the Forearm”…
Kenny Cross

My immediate first thought was Mr/Mrs Garrison from South Park when he had his new penis grown on a mouse and the mouse ran away. Of course there’s always, “Is that a penis growing on your arm or are you just happy to see me?”
http://twitter.com/tadasyoyolt Tadas Jelinek

Mind blown.

+lunch blown on my keyboard.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_D55WI4DCGD37XCUHNBH7IVC5HQ Hollow

It doesn’t look very, ah good.. But very kewl.. Now all they need to do is replicate the pieces inside and we might have a cure for deafness? Ya think?
- fuzzyfuzzyfungus
  
  There are other groups approaching that problem (problems, really, several different points of failure between ye olde sounde waves and the brain); but the ones working on cartilage farming and reconfiguration are probably not the ones you want either attempting to repair the sensory structures in your cochlea or electronically twiddle your nerves to replace its function…
Preston Sturges

Friends, Romans,….oh forget it…..
theophrastvs

Left ear on a left arm… i assume they checked twice that it was the left ear missing.
Navin_Johnson

Please grow us a unicorn chaser.
awjt

The Final Front Ear.
Brainspore

Another satisfied customer.