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A unique surgery of jaw transplantation was performed

31 October 2019 | News | Head and neck surgery | Head and neck tumors | Aram G. Badalyan

At  "Nairi" medical Center an incredibly complicated operation was performed. In a male patient with a severe cancer of the jaw, the jaw was removed and replaced with a new one made from the patient's bones.

The complication of the operation is that it was performed by a multidisciplinary team which means that doctors of different specialties worked together. Similar surgeries are performed only in the best clinics in the world.

Several experienced surgeons worked in the operating room simultaneously, as there were at least three problems to solve: the removal of the patient's jaw with a malignant tumor, its replacement with an implant and the preservation of the patient's appearance. After all, the patient was only 60 years old. Another peculiarity was that the jaw was shaped from the patient's fibula.

The jaw was modeled directly on the operating table. The calculations were done by the device based on the results of computer tomography. Like jewelers, surgeons cut the individual parts with their hands and fasten them with special plates.

In this case, the risks of implant rejection tend to be zero because it is patients own bone. 

Moreover, the patient does not lose the walking ability as all the motor functions are taken over by tibia.


It is been a long time that donor bones and polymers are being used  in medicine for transplantation, but patients' own organs transplantation  is a new technology. However, it becomes common for the surgeons of "Nairi" MC.


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