Posted By :  Admin1

In a remarkable medical achievement, surgeons in China have successfully saved a woman’s severed ear by temporarily grafting it onto her foot before reattaching it to her head months later. The procedure, believed to be a world first, was carried out after the woman lost her ear and suffered extensive scalp injuries in a workplace accident. 

The 30-something woman, identified in reports only by her surname Sun, was working at a factory in Shandong Province when her long hair became entangled in heavy machinery in April 2025. The accident not only tore off her left ear, but also caused severe damage to her scalp, neck and facial skin. Due to the extensive vascular and tissue injuries, doctors found that they could not immediately reattach the ear.

Faced with this challenge, the reconstructive microsurgery team at Shandong Provincial Hospital in Jinan chose an unconventional approach. Led by microsurgery specialist Qiu Shenqiang, they grafted the severed ear onto the top of the patient’s foot so that it would receive a continuous blood supply and remain viable while the head wounds healed. Surgeons selected the foot because its arteries and veins are of a similar caliber to those of the ear, and the skin is thin enough to minimize later adjustments. 

The initial operation to attach the ear to the foot lasted about ten hours and required extremely delicate reconnection of tiny blood vessels. In the days that followed, the doctors encountered complications with circulation and performed manual bloodletting nearly 500 times to maintain blood flow. Meanwhile, they reconstructed the woman’s scalp using a skin graft from her stomach. 

After more than five months of healing and monitoring, the medical team carried out a six-hour surgery in October 2025 to reattach the ear to its original position on the woman’s head. The patient has since been discharged and continues rehabilitation to restore facial function and reduce scarring. This case highlights both medical ingenuity and the expanding capabilities of reconstructive surgery.