Doctors use arm and rib cage cartilage to re grow ear

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Johns Hopkins University re-grew an ear for a skin cancer patient over a 20 month period. The patient, Sherrie Walter, was diagnosed with basal-cell carcinoma in 2010. It began as a sore on her left ear and then spread into her ear canal, leading doctors to take her ear, neck glands, part of her skull and lymph nodes. Ear reconstruction is normally done with skin from the ear or neck area. Since most of her skin was no longer there this caused an issue. Doctors then decided that a prosthetic was not the optimal option since Ms. Walter was missing some skull bone. They agreed on a newer method: growing an ear on the wrist. The procedure took over 20 months. They  took cartilage from her rib cage and skin and arteries from various areas of her body. The implant was put under the skin on the forearm and the replacement was detached in March of 2012. After detachment the new ear needed to be altered to match her other ear cosmetically. The surgery to attach Ms. Walter's new ear was last Tuesday and surgeons are expected to release the results of the surgery in one week's time.