TOMSK, Apr
23 – RIA Tomsk. The Tomsk method for patient's face reconstruction using an
implant made of porous nanoceramics was first used in St. Petersburg; Tomsk
scientists helped to perform a surgery, implant itself was also made in Tomsk,
the senior research associate of the head and neck tumor department of Tomsk
Cancer Research Institute Denis Kulbakin told the agency.
Earlier it
was reported that scientists of the Tomsk Cancer Research Institute in 2017
were the first in Russia to have an operation to close a defect in the facial
bony tissues with a porous nanoceramic implant. The prosthesis from a material
developed by material scientists of Tomsk State University (TSU) and Institute
of Strength Physics and Materials Science (ISPMS) of the SB RAS was installed
to the 26-year-old patient to replace the removed part of the jaw.
Reaching
the federal level
According
to Kulbakin, about a dozen facial restoration operations were performed at the
Cancer Research Institute of the Tomsk National Research Medical Center of the
Russian Academy of Sciences. In each case we are talking about the implant,
created by a three-dimensional model of the patient's skull. Tomsk development
interested specialists of the N.N. Petrov National Medical Research Center of
Oncology (NMRC) in St. Petersburg.
"In
St. Petersburg, microsurgical operations are performed to close soft tissue
defects. But large defects, where bone tissue and soft tissues need to be
repaired for a large distance, cause difficulties for all specialists. The
staff of the NMRC found it possible to conduct such an operation on their base
with a joint surgical team. And for the first time It was carried out according
to our methodology, not in Tomsk", – the interlocutor of the agency told.
He
explained that the patient undergoing the operation was successfully cured of
the upper jaw tumor. However, after treatment, he had a defect in the midface:
there were no bony structures of the upper jaw, soft buccal areas and the oral
cavity. A man could not eat on his own, and received food through a gastrostoma
– a hole in the stomach. An implant for a Petersburg patient was made in Tomsk.
© предоставил Денис Кульбакин
Implant of porous nanoceramics for a patient of the St. Petersburg Center of Oncology
“We
recreated a support for the eye and restored the defect in the zygo-orbital
area due to the implant. The defect in the soft tissues of the face and mouth
was closed with own tissues from the lower leg. In fact, we filled the defect
in the soft and bony tissues of the face”, – Kulbakin said.
The surgery
was very laborious, lasted about 10 hours.
"The
implant itself is put in half an hour – it needs to be just fixed. We needed to
also restore the soft tissues, which we must first take and then restore the
blood flow to them by stitching small vessels from this tissue with neck
vessels. This stage requires special equipment and technology. The next step
was the formation of the cheeks and oral cavity from the tissues used", –
the scientist explained.
Replication
difficulties
As the
scientist reported, at present the Tomsk technique of reconstruction of the
facial bony tissues is undergoing lengthy clinical trials. The ultimate goal –
is to make it accessible to the masses. This is possible after passing
certification in Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare
(Roszdravnadzor), which can take up to ten years. But even after that, only a
few medical centers in Russia and abroad will be able to use the technique.
"The
distribution of the technique to ordinary clinics is unlikely, because they do
not have the ability to manufacture individual implants - they have no access
to physicists (who can manufacture an implant for each patient). Restoration of
hard and soft facial tissues remains the prerogative of large medical centers –
such as St. Petersburg, Moscow and ours, where there are personnel and
experience", – Kulbakin said.
Future
conceived now
The
interlocutor added that the team of Tomsk scientists, consisting of physicists,
cell biologists and clinical oncologists, who developed a unique method of
facial bone tissue restoration, continues to improve it.
"We have gone further and are trying to
introduce cellular technologies. We are creating an implant that is saturated
with cells that would give growth to the tissue around it, so that it would be
like our own tissue - bone and soft. Now the development of this technique is
at the preclinical stage", – he concluded.