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A soldier undergoes complex surgery in Lviv: a jaw is formed from the tibia

For the first time, the maxillofacial surgeons of the UNBROKEN Centre performed a complex microsurgical operation to reconstruct the lower jaw on their own – without the help of foreign colleagues, reports

The patient is 25-year-old Andriy Grushko from the village of Chkalove in the Kherson region. The guy is a tractor driver by profession, but he has never worked in this field. As soon as he turned 18, Andriy decided to join the army. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he served in the Donetsk region. On 12 March 2022, a fragment of a Russian shell shattered the young soldier’s jaw and almost took his life.

A piece of ammunition literally tore off half his face. His comrades managed to stop the massive bleeding and evacuate the seriously wounded soldier.

“Then came almost two years of treatment in various medical institutions in Ukraine, the last of which was the National Rehabilitation Centre NESLAMNI. Andriy was admitted here for surgery to reconstruct his lower jaw. Due to the absence of a part of the bone and teeth, the young man could not eat normally: chew and eat solid food. To fix this, our surgeons inserted a titanium implant into the defender’s jaw. However, unfortunately, it did not take root,”

– said the “Unbreakable” rehabilitation centre.

The only other way to help the patient is to replace the missing fragment with his own bone. This is one of the most difficult operations in maxillofacial surgery. For the bone to take root, it is necessary to jewellery a bunch of small vessels – only the thickness of a human hair – to be connected.

“Our specialists, together with their American colleagues from the FACE to FACE mission, have successfully performed such microsurgical interventions many times. For example, at the end of last autumn, they operated on more than 10 soldiers with similar injuries. The experience gained now allows our maxillofacial surgeons to perform such a complex reconstructive surgery on their own – without the help of foreign specialists,”

– the doctors noted.

A team of doctors led by Head of the Head and Neck Centre Oleh Kovtuniak took a part of the tibia along with muscles and blood vessels and transplanted it into the defender’s jaw. They managed to successfully suture all the vessels. The surgeons then closed the wound with a flap of the patient’s own skin. This complex microsurgical operation lasted for 14 hours.

The bone has taken root. Two weeks after his face was restored, Andriy was able to visit his wife and little son.