Mumbai doctors remove tumour, reconstruct man’s jaw using his leg bone

Patient was free from tumour after a 14-hour-long op; docs now planning implant so he can eat solids

A 31-year-old man suffering from dual oral problems has gotten relief after 10 years after the doctors of Nair hospital reconstructed a jaw using his leg bone (fibula). The coordination between doctors of the dental college and the plastic surgery department of the BYL Nair Hospital led to this successful surgery.

Santosh Yadav (name changed), a resident of the suburb, developed a tumour due to chewing gutka. Within a span of 10 years, his jaw condition worsened and the tumour started to ooze pus. He then approaches Nair dental hospital for treatment. 

Dr Neelam Andrade, Head of Department, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Nair Hospital Dental College said, "The patient suffered from a rare condition of Ameloblastoma (recurrent tumour in the jaw) along with submucous fibrosis (not able to open his mouth), which is uncommon. It was a non-cancerous tumour but recurrent. Hence, we had to remove his lower jaw to get rid of the recurrent tumour." 

"A plastic surgeon at Nair hospital removed almost 8 cm of bone from the leg of the patient and created a jaw. The procedure is not easy as more than 4 cm of bone needs an anastomosis blood vessel procedure. So along with the bone, a part of the blood vessel was also removed from the leg (peritoneal vessel) and attached to the facial vessel so that it can become a living bone, or else the surgery would have been unsuccessful," added Dr Andrade.

The doctor added, "By the time I removed the lower jaw, the plastic surgeons had removed the bone and vessels from the leg and started the reconstruction process of the jaw and vessels. A doppler study was done to see whether blood was flowing properly. The whole procedure took around 14 hours. The patient was also suffering from submucous fibrosis where he was not able to open his mouth wide. The patient was operated on in March and now we are planning for an implant so that he can eat solid food." 

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