A new procedure was used by doctors at Rambam Health Care Campus to implant a titanium jaw in a wounded Syrian.
Top) Titanium jaw implant. Bottom) Professor Rachmiel (L) and Dr. Leiser (R) examine their patient from Syria. Photography: RHCC.
A 23-year-old Syrian citizen arrived in Israel for treatment after a bullet demolished his lower jaw. Rambam doctors outfitted him with a custom-made jaw in a pioneering new operation that restored his face.
A new jawbone was printed on titanium using 3D CT and then implanted in the face of a Syrian citizen who came to Israel for medical treatment after being wounded in his country’s civil war. The man arrived at Rambam in critical condition; a rifle bullet had completely destroyed his lower jaw, rendering him unable to speak or eat.
Professor Adi Rachmiel, director of Rambam’s Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, performed the ground-breaking operation with Dr. Yoav Leiser, who recently returned from training in Germany, where he specialized in restoring eye sockets, jaws, and cheek bones. One day after surgery, the patient was eating and speaking. “We succeeded in returning his human quality,” Dr. Yoav Leiser said of the patient, whose face had been torn, jaw smashed, and bottom teeth blown out.
In the procedure, called a Patient Specific Implant (PSI), doctors created a jaw perfectly suited to the patient. While such procedures previously demanded the connection of many plates, PSI requires only one individualized plate, serving as a custom-made “replacement part.” Further, all planning is done before and not during surgery, saving time and yielding superior results. To compensate for the fact that the patient had no medical records, doctors relied on statistical models.
Following this success, three additional patients are scheduled to undergo similar innovative treatments. Hence, local patients will benefit from the doctor’s experience.