Posted on 06/04/2015 10:12:29 AM PDT by Red Badger
Texas doctors say they have done the world's first partial skull and scalp transplant to help a man with a large head wound from cancer treatment.
MD Anderson Cancer Center and Houston Methodist Hospital doctors announced Thursday that they did the operation on May 22 at Houston Methodist.
The recipient - Jim Boysen, a 55-year-old software developer from Austin, Texas - expects to leave the hospital Thursday with a new kidney and pancreas along with the scalp and skull grafts. He said he was stunned at how well doctors matched him to a donor with similar skin and coloring.
"It's kind of shocking, really, how good they got it. I will have way more hair than when I was 21," Boysen joked in an interview with The Associated Press.
Last year, doctors in the Netherlands said they replaced most of a woman's skull with a 3-D printed plastic one. The Texas operation is thought to be the first skull-scalp transplant from a human donor, as opposed to an artificial implant or a simple bone graft.
Boysen had a kidney-pancreas transplant in 1992 to treat diabetes he has had since age 5 and has been on drugs to prevent organ rejection. The immune suppression drugs raise the risk of cancer, and he developed a rare type - leiomyosarcoma (lee-oh-my-oh-sar-KOHM-ah).
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
In this photo taken on Wednesday, June 3, 2015, James Boysen is interviewed in his hospital bed at Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston. Texas doctors say he received the world's first skull and scalp transplant from a human donor to help heal a large head wound from cancer treatment. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)
Bless him.
He looks great. Good for him... deserves a run of positive luck. Important medical event, too.
LOL!...................
Um, wow. Reality imitates Mary Shelley?
I would have asked for more hair...........................
No brains were involved......................
Truly. This is the first time I've heard of a pancreas transplant. Up until today, I thought it was impossible.
Good news.
FMCDH(BITS)
It’s early. They have to get the technique down from novel to routine before there will be choice. It’s like shoes... they started off simply, but the variety of type and style increased over time.
He is transskulled...
Has anyone seen Phil Collins since this transplant? :O
If you have cancer, MD Anderson is the place to be if you can manage to get there.
This will come in handy as the muzzies chop off more heads.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.