Ear Detached for 20 Hours: Shanghai Ninth Hospital Doctors "Foster" It on the Foot First

At 5 p.m. on June 11, a patient surnamed Zhang suffered a mechanical traction accident that completely avulsed his right ear. By the time he arrived at Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, the ear had been detached for 20 hours, far exceeding the conventional 6- to 8-hour golden window for replantation, and the roots of the superficial temporal artery and vein had been completely torn off, leaving no usable recipient vessels at the original site.

Wang Tingliang, leader of the youth emergency supermicrosurgery task force of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and his team devised a staged plan of "temporary fostering on the foot dorsum to rebuild blood circulation, followed by precise orthotopic replantation in a second stage." In the first stage, they anastomosed the auricular artery, which measures only 0.8 millimeters in diameter, and reinforced venous return with double venous anastomosis, successfully restoring blood supply at the critical 24-hour mark after detachment. The second-stage surgery on June 22 dissected a 12- to 14-centimeter vascular pedicle to complete orthotopic replantation. As of June 29, the patient's ear is surviving well with ideal cosmetic recovery and he is about to be discharged.

In recent years, the team has performed more than 200 complex emergency supermicrosurgical procedures for critical trauma.