On Wednesday, doctors from the children’s hospital are carrying out the first jaw reconstruction surgery in the region with a new method in a 14-year-old girl, informed the Provincial Specialist Children’s Hospital in Olsztyn.
The operation involves a fibula transplant and anastomosis of blood vessels under a microscope.
Such types of surgeries in adults are carried out in many oncology centers in Poland, in children much less often. In our region, it will be the first jaw reconstruction in this way – told PAP Dr. Krzysztof Dowgierd, who leads the team of surgeons.
He added that the operation is performed on a 14-year-old patient who has lost a significant part of the mandible due to cancer. Doctors are to reconstruct this defect, which will allow the teenager to regain fitness and health.
The surgeons will take a fragment of the fibula with blood vessels from the patient’s lower leg. It will be implanted into the jaw defect. They also have to make the so-called microcombination of blood vessels, i.e. their connections with the jugular vessels under a specialized microscope.
The surgery, started on Wednesday morning, will last about 12 hours. Whether it was successful, it will be possible – according to doctors – to assess the next day. After the mandible is reconstructed, the patient will be able to undergo minor procedures aimed at full reconstruction of the oral cavity, and then rehabilitation.
In the children’s hospital in Olsztyn, there is a supra-regional center of maxillofacial, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery for children. About 500 children are treated here every year. (PAP)