Media Release

Mangalore, Jun 23: 33-year-old Suresh from Kasargod had no idea of the events in store for him on the fateful day of April 2nd. A shotgun that went off accidentally while working on a farm entered his face on the undersurface of his jaw. The pellets shattered his lower jawbone into multiple pieces, resulting in a large hole extending from the lower mouth to the upper neck.
 
Rajesh went to Yenepoya Medical College Hospital, Deralakatte where the wound was cleaned by an initial surgery. The complete damage was quite extensive, with loss of the entire segment of the teeth bearing area of the lower jaw - the chin area and the segments on both sides.

On realizing that conventional surgery could not correct the damage, plastic and cosmetic surgeon Dr Satish Bhat was consulted to plan the corrective surgery. Conventional treatment would involve multiple surgeries, needing three different tissues from various parts of the body to replace the jaw bone, inner lining and the outer neck skin. Dr Bhat however, planned an alternative procedure involving the technique of Microsurgery.

This involved removing a part of the ‘fibula’ bone from one leg, with some attached skin and flesh along with it’s blood vessels and cutting and reshaping it to resemble the lower jaw. The fabricated new jawbone was fixed to the lower face by fitting it into the huge gap in the jaw. The transplantation surgery was completed by reconnecting the blood vessels by Microsurgery to restore circulation. The skin and flesh attached to the bone was stitched into the gap inside the mouth as well as on the outer neck skin.

This complex surgery lasted 12 hours and involved Maxillo Facial Surgeons Dr Joyce, Dr Vinay and Anaesthetist Dr Salman. The surgery went smoothly and Rajesh recovered well. He has been walking on the operated leg within 2 weeks of the surgery, all the wounds have healed completely. Failure of this complex surgery or unavailability of the same would have left Rajesh crippled with multiple problems involving speech, chewing and swallowing. In fact, without the surgery, Rajesh would not have been able to come out into public due to the severity of the face deformity.

He is now being discharged from hospital, once it is once it is seen that he can slowly resume his previous job and his role in society. Such a complex transplantation surgery following a gunshot injury has been done for the first time in Mangalore.