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BALTIMORE — Doctors have reconstructed a woman's ear, regrowing it under the skin of her forearm, after the woman lost her ear in 2010 to cancer.
Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital performed the final surgery last week in a series of procedures that have spanned the past 20 months. In a process that is believed to have been the most complicated ear reconstruction in North America, surgeons constructed an ear from cartilage, skin and arteries from other parts of Sherrie Walter's body, finally storing the ear under Walter's skin for four months to allow it to grow its own skin.
The 42-year-old manager at Macy's lost part of her left ear, part of her skull and her left ear canal in Dec. 2010, two years after being diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma.
Plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Patrick Byrne performed the surgery.
"I thought of this exact strategy many years before and really was looking for the right patient to try it on," he told CBS Baltimore.
The ear had been attached in January, but had resembled an "ear-shaped blob" sealed against Walters' head, according to the Baltimore Sun. The final step of the surgery was to shape it to look like an actual ear.
Forearm skin was used as an alternative, but because the skin does not stretch well, it had to be expanded over the course of several weeks using a saline-filled balloon.
Once the skin was expanded, the ear was placed in the arm near the wrist so skin would grow around it.
The ear grew for months under the skin of Walters' forearm. It was finally removed and attached on Sept. 25.
"I am one step closer to the end, to looking normal again," Walters said of the surgery.
The new ear was not the only option for Walters: a prosthetic ear could have been attached every day via tape and glue, but it would have been a "royal pain in the butt," according to Byrne. He said Walters agreed that a prosthetic was not for her, although she was not sure what to expect with the surgery.
Walters told CBS Baltimore the experience has been strange and emotional for both her and her husband.
"It just didn't seem like anything we'd ever heard of so to see the progression and to see how everything has come out has been just great to kind of come to fruition," she said.
Walters can hear through the ear with the help of a special hearing aid, she said.
