Delayed, bilateral, non-microvascular ear replantation after violent amputation

Abstract

Amputation of any body part is undoubtedly a traumatic experience leaving a terrible deformity, especially when the part or parts involved are visible and constitute an essential component of someone's facial whole. Bilateral ear amputation and successful subsequent replantation has been reported historically, but not in the modern surgical literature. We report the case of a 27-year-old female who was abducted and suffered a bilateral ear amputation at the hands of one of her captors to speed delivery of ransom money; the severed parts were sent to the parents approximately 2 hours after the amputation had taken place, and the girl was released some 48 hours after the ears were delivered. Microvascular replantation was attempted immediately after admission to the hospital some 2 hours after her release, but failed, and so a non-microvascular replantation was performed and was successful, after approximately 54 hours of ischaemia time. We consider this the first report of a complete bilateral, delayed, non-microvascular, successful ear replantation in a human being in the modern literature.