Ukrainian surgeons have made a historic medical breakthrough by performing the world’s second-most complex microsurgical operation to transplant bone into the jaw. Andriy Hrushko, a 25-year-old soldier from the village of Chkalove in the Kherson region, became the first Ukrainian to restore his lower jaw using his own tibia.
Wounded on March 12, 2022, during the Russian invasion of the Donetsk region, he had been in the Unbreakable rehabilitation center for a long time. His previous surgery with a titanium implant was unsuccessful, so doctors decided to use the patient’s own bone to restore his jaw.
Guided by the goal of a successful transplant, a team of doctors led by Oleh Kovtuniak from the Head and Neck Center took a part of the tibia along with muscles and blood vessels and performed a highly complex microsurgical operation. The process lasted 14 hours, but thanks to the high professionalism of the doctors, all the vessels were successfully sutured, and the bone was successfully implanted.
This medical achievement marks a significant breakthrough for Ukrainian surgery, as it is the first time such an operation has been performed without the involvement of foreign specialists who previously exchanged experience with the American face-to-face mission.
