Woman Receives 3D-Printed Nose Grown on Her Arm

Medical science has seen incredible leaps in innovation in the past five decades, and now with the advent of 3D printing, limbs can be made to replace damaged or otherwise non-functional appendages, much like in the case of a French woman who recently got a brand new nose earlier this month.

Doctors from the Claudius Regaud Institute and Toulouse University Hospital (CHU de Toulouse) made a 3D proboscis for the unnamed patient after she lost hers to a type of cancer that took root in her nasal cavity in 2013.

Despite radiotherapy and chemotherapy, a significant portion of the frontal part and her palate were beyond saving, and she has been sans a nose ever since.

The first phase of the cutting-edge reconstruction saw the surgery team create a 3D version of the former smelling organ, using the same materials found in organ and tissue-replacements. The replication was then implanted into her forearm for two months to grow the necessary blood vessels to ensure it would be functional.

Per a statement from CHU de Toulouse via Facebook, the second phase saw the “successful transplant” and connection of the blood vessels. They added that the patient is doing well and the surgery was hailed as a landmark case.

Other similar, and successful, 3D printed surgery stories include an ear for an underdeveloped one, and a titanium jaw for a head and neck cancer patient.

With the galloping pace of technological advances, who “nose” what the future holds?