Surgeons create new ear from patient’s body

By Andrea K. Walker

BALTIMORE — Sherrie Walter will never wear earrings again but recently started styling her hair in a ponytail the way she used to before her skin cancer was diagnosed nearly four years ago.

It’s a big step for Walter, whose life was turned upside down when doctors finally figured out that the persistent sore in her ear was actually basal cell carcinoma, the most-common form of cancer. By then, it had spread so much that the Bel Air, Md., mother of two had to have part of her skull and most of her left ear removed.

But surgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital have constructed a new ear for the 42-year-old Macy’s manager and, feeling like her old self, Walter is again enjoying ponytails and other simple things in life. Doctors recently performed the last major surgery in a series of procedures spanning 20 months to finish the ear.

The rebuilding is thought to be the most-complicated ear reconstruction in North America. The new ear is made from cartilage, skin and arteries from other parts of Walter’s body. The ear spent four months implanted in her forearm so skin could grow around it.

The ear had been attached in January, but looked more like an ear-shaped blob sealed against Walter’s head. This month, a group of surgeons led by Dr. Patrick Byrne created an earlobe and shaped it to look more like a real ear.

Byrne and his team of surgeons used cartilage from Walter’s ribs to construct and carve an ear and used her forearm for the reconstruction site.

“We implanted the ear near the wrist and just let it live there so all the skin could grow into the ear,” Byrne said.