• Patient loses ear and part of scalp in workplace accident
• Ear temporarily grafted onto leg before being reattached to head

A Chinese medical team successfully carried out a rare procedure, temporarily grafting a severed patient’s ear onto her leg before reattaching it to its original position.

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Medical reports stated that the patient, “Sun,” lost her ear and a large portion of her scalp in an April workplace accident involving heavy machinery, which caused tearing of her scalp, neck, and face, detaching the ear along with part of the scalp, according to local media.

Upon arrival at Shandong Regional Hospital in Jinan, the hand, foot, and microsurgical reconstructive team attempted to repair the scalp using conventional methods, but the severity of the tissue and blood vessel damage made the procedure unsuccessful, rendering immediate ear reattachment impossible until the scalp fully healed.

To keep the ear viable, the medical team grafted it onto the patient’s upper leg, where the arteries and veins were compatible, and the skin and subcutaneous tissue closely matched the thinness of the scalp, requiring only minor adjustments.

The initial grafting procedure lasted about 10 hours. Qiu explained that connecting the extremely tiny blood vessels in the ear, measuring 0.2–0.3 millimeters in diameter, required advanced microsurgical skills.

After five days, the team faced a new challenge when the ear turned dark purple due to circulation issues. Manual bloodletting techniques were applied around 500 times over five days, while the scalp was reconstructed using skin grafts taken from the patient’s abdomen.

After more than five months, once the scalp and neck tissues had fully healed and the swelling subsided, the team successfully reattached the ear in October, in a six-hour procedure that set a new world record.

The patient has now returned home, with most facial and tissue functions restored, and she is awaiting minor procedures to restore her lost eyebrows and reduce scar effects on her leg.