2023-08-09 00:30:38
Nina Alekseeva
53 minutes ago
20 years ago, a message came from Austria: in the clinic of maxillofacial surgery at the University of Vienna, a 42-year-old patient with a malignant tumor was the first in the world to transplant a new tongue from a donor. It was noted that the operation lasted 14 hours.
The blood flow was restored, and the tongue took root. And although, as they wrote, the man almost does not feel the taste, he adapted himself to eat. And the speech therapist taught him to talk again.
There is no information about how a man with a foreign language is doing today. By the way, some experts believe that the story of the “Viennese patient” may well turn out to be a fake, because no one has provided a description of the operation. However, the professional community doubts the appropriateness of such interventions.
– After transplantation of a donor organ, it is necessary to use immunosuppressive therapy, which can lead to the progression of the tumor process. The common practice is to transplant tissue (skin, skin with muscle) from the patient himself on a vascular pedicle, notes the maxillofacial surgeon, oncologist Grant Zabunyan.
And this is a very progressive technology – before, after the removal of the tongue at the third or fourth stage of cancer, the hole in the mouth was simply covered with a flap of skin, forever depriving a person of the opportunity to eat and talk normally. Because of this, many patients refused surgery. Now doctors are returning even difficult patients to normal life.
In MNIOI them. P.A. Herzen, to restore the tongue removed due to a tumor, they developed a transplant consisting of two fragments. The first includes the skin, subcutaneous tissue and fibers of the latissimus dorsi muscle. It forms a language. The second fragment from the fibers of the chest muscle is used to create the diaphragm of the floor of the mouth. The nerves and vessels of the graft are sutured under a microscope to the vessels and nerves in the neck. A month after the operation, the patient is allowed to eat independently and talk. In Krasnodar, at the Clinical Oncological Dispensary No. 1, a piece of skin from the patient’s neck was used for tongue transplantation. The tumor in a 57-year-old man was discovered by chance during a visit to the dentist. Along with malignant cells, part of his tongue was also cut out. In the Krasnodar Regional Clinical Hospital No. 1, a 48-year-old patient had his tongue restored using skin taken from his own forearm. It is possible to lose the gift of speech not only because of illness. Doctors of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Clinical Hospital sewed the tongue of a woman injured in an accident. She received many fractures of the facial skeleton, her lower jaw was torn off. Surgeons restored the vessels and nerves of the tongue, and after rehabilitation, the function of the organ was preserved.
Beware it’s hot!
– Tumors of the tongue are always malignant, grow rapidly, are fraught with metastases that penetrate the liver, brain, lymph nodes, lungs, – says oncologist Svetlana Ovsyannikova. – At risk are smokers, especially those who also abuse alcohol, as well as lovers of too hot tea and coffee. The disease is more common after 50-60 years. However, 25-year-old patients are not uncommon. In men, the incidence is five times higher than in women. Dangerous symptoms: dense red or white spots in the area of the tongue that do not go away for a long time. They are easily confused with formations in syphilis, which are also capable of degenerating into cancer. Enlarged cervical lymph nodes, bad breath, a feeling of numbness when “the tongue does not turn” should alert. The disease is determined by biopsy. Treatment is with radiation and chemotherapy. Surgical intervention can be of two types: hemiglosectomy – partial resection of the tongue and glossectomy – complete removal of the organ.
By the way
The human papillomavirus, transmitted through intimacy, including oral sex, can cause tongue cancer. Of the 150 known strains, 13 species can cause malignancy. HPV-16 and HPV-18 are especially dangerous. A chipped tooth and a poor-quality denture with pointed parts often injure the mucous membrane in the mouth. Over time, the inflammatory process can turn into cancer. 10 thousand – so many cases of malignant tumors of the mouth are detected annually in Russia.
Hands to feet: the most unusual cases of transplantation
Nine-year-old Chinese woman Ming Li was hit by a tractor – the girl’s hand was cut off. They didn’t sew it on right away – the child’s body would not withstand the load. Doctors attached the limb to Ming’s leg. Three months later, Li recovered and the arm was put back in place. American doctors transplanted the penis and scrotum at the same time to a soldier who lost his genitals and legs after the explosion. A year later, the sensitivity of the organ and erection were restored. True, during transplantation, doctors removed the testicles from the scrotum, otherwise the children that the patient would have conceived would not be genetically his, but a donor. The owner of a new penis cannot become a father. A resident of Australia will donate the uterus of her daughter, who had this important organ removed for medical reasons after giving birth. But she dreams of once again making her mother happy with her grandson. Women decided on a risky operation, which will take place this year. The ovary of a sister was transplanted to a 38-year-old American woman. A year later, she became pregnant, although before that she was considered infertile due to ovarian dysfunction. The transplantation of three organs at once to a nine-year-old child from the village of Taranay near Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is considered unique. The boy was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, which affected the liver and lungs. The child received organs from an adult donor, and only a part of the lungs had to be taken. The operation lasted 16 hours and was successful.
Photo source: Globallookpress.com/© Jens Kalaene
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