Surgeons transplant 3D ear made of living cells

This May 31, 2022, image courtesy of Dr. Arturo Bonilla of the Congenital Ear Institute in San Antonio, Texas, shows a before (L) image of a patient's ear and an image 30 days after surgery to reconstruct the ear lobe

A US medical team said Thursday they had reconstructed a human ear using the patient's own tissue to create a 3D bioimplant, a pioneering procedure they hope can be used to treat people with a rare birth defect.

The surgery was performed as part of an early-stage clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the implant for people with microtia, in which the external ear is small and not formed properly.

"As a physician who has treated thousands of children with microtia from across the country and around the world, I am inspired by what this technology may mean for microtia patients and their families," Bonilla said in a statement.

The procedure involves 3D scanning the patient's opposite ear to create a blueprint, then collecting a sample of their ear cartilage cells and growing them to a sufficient quantity. 

The implanted ear is supposed to mature over time, developing the natural look and feel, including elasticity, of a regular ear.

Bonilla said: "The AuriNovo implant requires a less invasive surgical procedure than the use of rib cartilage for reconstruction. We also expect it to result in a more flexible ear than reconstruction with a PPE implant."

Boys are more likely to be affected than girls, with Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander and Native Americans more impacted than non-Hispanic whites.

Looking forward, 3DBio wants to develop implants with more severe forms of microtia.

"Our initial indications focus on cartilage in the reconstructive and orthopedic fields, and then our pipeline builds upon this progress to expand into the neurosurgical and organ system fields," the company says on its website.

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