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Medicine Biotech

Woman Successfully Grows Ear From Arm 74

Posted by Soulskill from the i-heard-that dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In 2008, Sherrie Walters, now 42 years old, discovered that she had rapidly spreading basal cell cancer in her ear. The disease is a type of skin cancer. The doctors pursued an aggressive treatment to combat the destructive disease, removing her ear, part of her skull, and her left ear canal. Though Walters was left without an ear, she was still able to hear with the help of a special hearing aid. A few months ago, doctors from the renowned Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore decided to try a new procedure on Walters. Using cartilage from her rib, the doctors stitched a new ear to match her right one. Then their creation was implanted under the skin of her forearm, where the ear grew for months. ...Doctors attached the ear and blood vessels surgically. Another surgery, conducted this week, gave the ear shape and detail. Dr. Patrick Byrne, a revered plastic and reconstructive surgeon, says that after the swelling goes down and the ear heals, Walters will have an ear that both looks and functions normally."
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Woman Successfully Grows Ear From Arm More

Woman Successfully Grows Ear From Arm

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  • I wonder... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Was that JUST the canal regrown or the Cochlear as well??

    • Re:I wonder... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 30, 2012 @05:41AM (#41505061)

      It was just the external part of the ear, or pinna. Her inner ear, including the cochlea, must have been functional to some extent because she was able to use a hearing aid (presumably a bone anchored hearing aid). The cochlea is not a 'simple' cartaliginous structure like the pinna. It is a complex sensory organ housed within a fluid-filled bony labyrinth, so not something that could be regrown using the technique described. The closest thing to regrowing a cochlea possible at present is probably stem cell research involving inner ear hair cell and auditory nerve regeneration, although obviously electronic cochlear implants and auditory brain stem implants are available.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Congrats, Sherrie.

      But if I was you, I'd stay away from Mike Tyson.

    • Re:I wonder... (Score:4, Informative)

      by dotancohen ( 1015143 ) on Sunday September 30, 2012 @07:27AM (#41505447) Homepage

      Was that JUST the canal regrown or the Cochlear as well??

      Just the outside cartridge. You can see photos of the whole procedure here, including the arm surgury (warning: gruesome):
      http://cbsbaltimore.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/sw-microvascular-ear-recon-rfff.pptx [wordpress.com]

      It is a Powerpoint slideshow, but opens fine in LibreOffice 3.4.

  • Holy @#$%... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    what did all that cost?

  • Vat (Score:1)

    by lyuden ( 2009390 )
    I like the idea but I would prefer some external vat to grow my replacement organs.

    • What I find really uncanny is that from one perspective this is an example of life imitating art.

      The somewhat infamous and critically celebrated Stelarc [wikipedia.org] has conducted a few experiments on his body to attach new sensory organs to his body and connect his body to larger networks. Ping body [nyu.edu] is a pretty famous one, but the one I have in mind is his "Ear on Arm [stelarc.org]". Partially quoting:

      The EAR ON ARM has required 2 surgeries thus far. An extra ear is presently being constructed on my forearm: A left ear on a left arm

  • Title is misleading. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Woman Successfully Grows Ear on Arm from "other body parts".

  • Gives a whole new meaning... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 30, 2012 @05:09AM (#41504953)
    to "don't put anything other than your elbow in your ear".

    • Re:Gives a whole new meaning... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 30, 2012 @07:11AM (#41505387)

      and "talk to the hand", is making more sense.

    • Huh?

      I have heard a lot of phrases, but never encountered that one. What does it even mean? Google is not helpful (it leads to your post) :(

      • I remember some health class back in first or second grade where they told us (when talking about ear health and cleaning - q-tips and such) never to put anything sharper than your elbow into your ear. That would have made it sometime in the mid-70s. I thought it was a rather odd statelement back then, and it's still odd today.

      • Try searching again without surrounding the phrase with quotes. If you let Google do a partial match then it will find plenty of pages with variations on the saying. EG. Never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear.

        It is an old saying telling you not to stick things in your ear to clean it of earwax. Not only can you cause damage, but you lose the benefits of earwax.

        So why mention the elbow? Because it won't fit in you ear, and you also can't touch your ear with your elbow even if it did fit.

        • Maybe we could just simplify the statement to stave confusion?
          "Never put anything in your ear"
          Perfect.
  • Politician successfully grows arse from elbow. Or .... was it elbow from arse? he doesn't seem to be clear on this one?

  • Great writing (Score:4, Funny)

    by jamesl ( 106902 ) on Sunday September 30, 2012 @05:21AM (#41504991)

    renowned Johns Hopkins
    a revered reconstructive and plastic surgeon.

    I hope it's just an oversight by the poster rather than the revered doctor that has left the "ear" implanted under the skin of her forearm.

  • Amazing! (Score:5, Informative)

    by olau ( 314197 ) on Sunday September 30, 2012 @05:51AM (#41505087) Homepage

    Check the photo of the ear in the arm [medicaldaily.com]. Awesome times we live in!

    • Re:Amazing! (Score:4, Funny)

      by K. S. Kyosuke ( 729550 ) on Sunday September 30, 2012 @06:14AM (#41505165)
      Apparently, she was all ears after the doctors told her that they could fix her.

    • Vagina (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 30, 2012 @07:27AM (#41505451)

      Awesome times would be when they can grow a vagina on my hand.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        High fives become increasingly awkward as the growth progresses..

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by drkim ( 1559875 )

        Awesome times would be when they can grow a vagina on my hand.

        But it would be even worse when you can't get that one to put out either...

    • Over recent years, I've been following such developments with great interest. However, I was under the impression that the plan was to use ears grown on mice and train them to scurry into position... have the plans been changed?

  • Anyone can get inked or pierced . . . but an extra ear or two . . . ? That is surely something that will annoy your parents:

    "Why can't you just grow your hair long, like we did in the hippie 60's, or cut it short and color it green, like we did in the punk 80's?"

    Right now, this was done to replace something that was missing. Will this technology advance, so you can add features that you didn't have before? Like, webbed feet and gill slits?

    • I could happily give all my money to the first guy who can give me functional cat ears. (And a functional cat tail as a bonus

      • I could happily give all my money to the first guy who can give me functional cat ears. (And a functional cat tail as a bonus

        Item One: Cat Ears [huffingtonpost.com]
        Item Two: Waggy Tail [cnet.com]

        Please call me to arrange payment.

  • ...was the first thing I could think. Why not just a slideshow. Then I opened the powerpoint and understood :-/ that's your typical NSFL medical science going on there.

  • Couldn't help but thinking... (Score:3)

    by Type44Q ( 1233630 ) on Sunday September 30, 2012 @06:59AM (#41505343)

    Woman Successfully Grows Ear From Arm

    This could bring new meaning to that silly gesture/expression "talk to the hand."

  • She was left without an ear and without a left ear.
  • Fortunately for the rest of the world, they never offered me a job. They have so many profoundly brilliant people there, I'd have drug the place down. Much much kudos to those involved in the research that led to breakthroughs like this one.

  • She was very open about it (Score:4, Informative)

    by RoboElvi ( 2742133 ) on Sunday September 30, 2012 @09:34AM (#41505999)
    I worked with her up to a year ago when she was transferred. She wore a compression sleeve over the ear on her left arm, but was cool with showing anyone who asked about it.

  • Rumor has it you may need a little extra ear after that hit you took last week

  • I think the more they use this technique, the more likely you can use your own body for replacement parts. Granted, if you need a heart transplant, you might need it right now, but for something like congestive heart failure, which would allow time, you could possibly use your own tissue to grow a new one in a lab, then have it transplanted, and avoiding the use of antirejection drugs for the rest of your life.
  • I know some body art/piercing people who are running out of places to punch holes in their ears. They could grow like 5 or 6 ears along each arm and be set for piercing locations for life!

  • to have good health insurance in the USA

  • I know you're all thinking it... (Score:3)

    by drkim ( 1559875 ) on Sunday September 30, 2012 @11:19AM (#41506585)

    I know you're all thinking it, so I don't even need to post the actual thought...

    ...but, most of us are looking forward to the day we can say, "Baby, you make me wish I had three hands!!!"

  • There is a specialist in Sao Paulo who can do this.

    - You get kidnapped, they cut an ear, send it to your family as "proof".

    - Your family pays, you go home, you visit the specialist, he makes your a new ear from cartilage from your rib.

    I actually saw once an interview from a women who was kidnapped twice and saw the specialist twice. No kidding.

  • .. was what I was reading from "when the ear heals".
    Maybe I need eye-surgery? Brain surgery?

    bjd

  • When a person has a medical excuse for not knowing their ass from their elbow.

  • See sub. ;-)

  • Next (Score:1)

    by peetm ( 781139 )

    Now, an arse from an elbow can't be too far away!

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