In a first for medicine, a surgeon has successfully implanted an outer ear developed and 3D-printed in a laboratory.
A 20-year-old woman who was born with the congenital disorder microtia and had one misshapen ear received the new appendage in March, 3DBio Therapeutics, the company that manufactured the ear, said in a news release Thursday. (The ear was constructed from her own cells as a mirror replica of her other ear.)
After it was all over she was asked how she liked her "printed" ear....., and she said..., "Eh?"
