World-first surgery in China preserves severed ear by grafting it onto patient’s foot

Surgeons in eastern China have reported a world-first case in which a woman’s severed ear was grafted onto her foot to preserve its blood supply after a workplace accident involving heavy machinery left her with life-threatening injuries.

The accident, which happened in April, completely detached her ear and tore her scalp, neck and facial skin into multiple fragments, making immediate reattachment impossible. Doctors said the ear’s survival depended on connecting blood vessels measuring as little as 0.008 to 0.012 inches in diameter.

The patient, identified only by the surname Sun, was treated at Shandong Provincial Hospital in Jinan, where surgeons initially attempted to repair the scalp using standard techniques. Qiu Shenqiang, deputy director of the hospital’s microsurgery unit, said the extensive tissue damage and disruption to the vascular network prevented the ear from being safely reattached. To keep it alive, the team decided to graft the ear onto the top of the woman’s foot, selecting the site because its arteries and veins were compatible with those of the ear and its skin required minimal adjustment, completing the initial operation in about 10 hours.

Five days later, surgeons encountered another critical complication when venous reflux disrupted blood circulation to the ear, forcing them to carry out repeated manual bloodletting over several days to restore blood flow. While the ear remained on the foot, doctors reconstructed the woman’s scalp using skin taken from her stomach, a process that lasted more than five months.

After the transplanted tissue healed and swelling subsided, the team successfully reattached the ear during a six-hour operation in October. Sun has since been discharged from the hospital with most facial and tissue function restored, though she is expected to undergo additional minor procedures.