https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/press-releases/doctors-give-deaf-boy-ears-made-his-own-ribs/

Doctors to give deaf boy ears made from his own ribs

13 Aug 2013, 4:24 p.m.

Kieran and family

Kieran Sorkin was born deaf and without any ears. His condition, microtia, affects just one in 100,000 babies on both sides of the head.

Kieran’s hearing is improving gradually after several operations and a bone-anchored hearing aid, but what he really wants is a pair of ears so he looks like other children.

A team of clinical staff at Great Ormond Street hospital, led by the lead clinician for plastic surgery, Mr Neil Bulstrode, will use cartilage from the eight-year-old’s ribs to build a pair of ears and graft them on to the side of his head. Two teams of surgeons will work together during the six-hour operation next year. One team will create pockets in the side of Kieran’s head while the other removes cartilage from six of his ribs.

Mr Bulstrode said: “From the cartilage I will carve a framework in the shape of an ear for both sides. Then I will place that framework in pockets under the skin, which is sucked down with a vacuum so that the skin conforms to the contours of the ear framework.”
Kieran will have a follow-up operation six months later.

Read more about ear reconstruction at GOSH.

Watch an interview with surgeon Mr Neil Bulstrode, and Kieran and his mum at BBC online.

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Notes to Editors

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust is the country’s leading centre for treating sick children, with the widest range of specialists under one roof.
With the UCL Institute of Child Health, we are the largest centre for paediatric research outside the US and play a key role in training children’s health specialists for the future.
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