The first skull cover, skin and head hair transplant, combined with the replacement of the kidney and pancreas, was carried out by specialists from the Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, according to BBC News and AP.
The extremely complicated operation, which was performed by over 50 specialists, surgeons and nurses, lasted 15 hours. It was planned for four years, but took place on May 22, 2015, when it was possible to find a suitable donor of all the tissues and organs necessary for transplantation.
Dr. Michael Klebuc, who led the team of surgeons, said that it was the world’s first skull transplant combined with an internal organ transplant.
The procedure was performed on 55-year-old James Boysen from Texas, who had been suffering from type I diabetes from the age of 5 and required taking insulin. However, he developed chronic kidney failure, it was necessary to transplant a new kidney, which was replaced along with the pancreas.
In 2006, an American contracted leiomyosarcoma, a soft tissue sarcoma. He was treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the treatment was successful, but it significantly damaged the skull and the surrounding skin.
In this situation, doctors can either reconstruct the skull using a XNUMXD tissue printer or replace it with a metal plate; the skin is collected from other parts of the body. Doctors, however, decided to perform a simultaneous transplant of the skull cover and the skin and hair of the head, because Boysen had in the meantime failure of both previously transplanted organs.
Dr Jesse Selber, who coordinated the entire operation, said that the transplant was decided because the patient needed another kidney and pancreas transplant anyway. The defect in the cover of his skull, measuring 25 cm by 25 cm, was also significant. This decision was made four years ago, only a suitable donor was awaited. It was an exceptional situation to perform such a procedure – emphasized the American specialist.
James Boysen has already left the Houston hospital. At a meeting with journalists, he joked that he now has more hair than when he turned 21. He added that he was grateful to the doctors for having decided to undergo such a difficult transplant. “Again I can do what I like and be with the people I love,” he said.