Film scenarios get out of our TV screens and land directly into real life situations. That moment from Hannibal where Dr. Lecter offers us a sneak peek into a living person’s brain, while the expertized patient stands conscious and awaken while his skull is being opened like one would open a Pandora box, has a sequel. This sequel is defined by better coordinates and offers a better outcome than one we see in the psycho movie. Actually, the first skull and scalp transplant ever performed was a success and it happened in Texas.
The doctors in US have just opened a new frontier in the field of transplant surgery by offering a successful world’s first, with a unique surgery accomplished on a patient who suffered a large head wound from cancer treatment.
The procedure was performed two weeks ago and now the lucky man is alive and kicking, enjoying his new design for life.
The skull and scalp surgery are not the only interventions the patient was exposed to. He will also be the owner of a new kidney and a brand new pancreas.
The forces of science wanted this procedure to be a success, as the man is stunned at how well doctors matched him to a donor with very similar skin and hair color.
Doctors from Houston Methodist Hospital and MD Anderson Cancer Center did the operation two weeks ago.
However, this is not the first medical attempt in this area. Last year, a large part of a woman’s skull was replaced with a 3D plastic tissue, matching the measurements and features of a real life structured one.
This partial attempt was now outgrown by a greater performance, with the Texas surgery being the first skull and scalp transplant from a human donor. Real tissue was transplanted in the mans’s case, as opposed to the artificial implant noted in the case of the woman from Netherlands.
Cancer treatments can be invasive to the point of destroying a large part of a patient’s head, while immune suppression drugs further block the body and keep it from regaining the strength to repair the wounds by itself.
The organ procurement lasted 18 months and it was managed by LifeGift, an US organization. The name of the donor is unknown.
This is a case where death makes life possible, with a man no longer alive offering a life chance for someone who had a serious head wound that extended through his skull and reached his brain.
Image Source: youthhealthmag.com
